Should You Buy Rivian After the IPO?

Rivian is an American electric vehicle automaker that was founded in 2009. As of 2020, the company does not have any vehicles available on the market. However, the company has revealed several prototypes. First, there is the R1T pick-up truck. This truck is an all-electric vehicle that has the look of a traditional pick-up with many performance innovations. Another vehicle on the Rivan roster is the R1S electric SUV.The company is following in Tesla’s footsteps with a “no dealership” distribution model. Buyers can pre-order either the R1T or the R1S for delivery at a later date. From a tech stand front, both the R1T and the R1S boast similar performance numbers to the Tesla Model X and the upcoming Tesla Cybertruck. However, Rivian has yet to garner the massive publicity as Tesla.

This is a question that can be hard to answer since Tesla has been bringing products to the market for almost 20 years and Rivian has yet to deliver one vehicle. However, we can look at where Tesla is right now and wonder if Rivian can play catch up.Right now, the biggest headwind against Rivian is the fact that it has no supercharger network like Tesla. That means that Rivian owners will have to charge their vehicles at home or look for a charging station that will accept Rivian vehicles. When it comes to cost, Rivian is looking to undercut Tesla by a few thousand dollars. Though at the luxury price point, buyers are less price sensitive.

Now, here is one advantage that Rivian has against Tesla: Rivian’s vehicles have a more traditional look. The Tesla Cybertruck is, well, unique in its design. The R1T, however, will look at home next to other trucks. And the R1S looks like most other SUVs on the market.

Overall, it will take a while before Rivian and Tesla can be mentioned as realistic competitors against each other.

As of right now, there is no date set for the Rivian IPO. However, it is expected to be one of the most highly anticipated IPOs when it does finally go public. Right now, Rivian has raised a massive amount of money through a $500 million investment from Ford. It also has a huge order of vans from Amazon. According to the experts at Money Morning, “The world’s richest man and founder of Amazon visited the company’s headquarters in Michigan in the fall of 2019. After seeing its operations, he pledged to buy 100,000 of its vans for Amazon’s delivery services.”

Here’s the thing. No one knows if Rivian will be a success. However, the world is shifting slowly to EVs because of emissions laws and other factors. While Rivian is far behind Tesla, it is way ahead of other EV companies that will be looking to come to market. If you want to invest in Rivian stock, then you should probably use speculative funds only. Essentially, only use the money you would be comfortable losing at a craps table in Vegas. That’s because an investment in Rivian is literally a gamble.