Rivian will open its growing EV charging network to the public

Rivian Automotive is rapidly building a proprietary fast-charge network given the poor state of third-party charging and will open it up to the public as early as next year, company executives said.

In many ways, Rivian is following in Tesla's footsteps, which built its Supercharger network into the largest and most reliable system of fast chargers in the U.S. Tesla began opening its network to non-Tesla vehicles in February.

The Rivian Adventure Network currently has 30 sites using DC chargers developed and manufactured at its Normal, Ill., factory, and the EV maker has hundreds more in the works, CEO RJ Scaringe said in a recent interview.

The fast-charging network is exclusive to Rivian owners right now but will open to the public and help alleviate the shortage of reliable, fast-charging sites for EV owners, Scaringe said on the tech podcast WVFRM earlier in the month.

"In the United States, there's been a massive underinvestment in charging infrastructure, and realizing that, we decided to build out our own infrastructure," he said. "A year from now, the density of Rivian chargers will really help solve a lot of these core issues, and we'll see third-party networks start to build up as well," he said.

Scaringe didn't give a timeline for opening the company's network, saying only "we're going to open it up." Rivian did not have further comment.

In separate public comments, Rivian CFO Claire McDonough said it could open in 2024.

Scaringe praised Tesla's Supercharger infrastructure as "clearly the best network that's out there" and said Rivian aims to emulate it. Rivian is targeting 99 percent uptime at its stations through monitoring and maintenance, he said.

"In terms of independent networks, there are only a couple out there — outside of Tesla — and they're not very good," Scaringe said. "A lot of them have real reliability problems or uptime problems and are not very predictable. So this is one of the reasons we're investing so much money and so much capital into building out a very large network."

Rivian is planning a network of 600 charging stations within two years, he said, starting on the east and west coasts and then connecting those across the U.S. and Canada.

According to Rivian's website, the EV startup plans to have 3,500 fast chargers, also referred to as dispensers, at the 600 sites in the U.S. and Canada, for an average of about six chargers per station. Scaringe said some stations will have more than six.

The fast chargers can deliver more than 200 kilowatts currently and will be able to deliver more than 300 kW in the future, Rivian said. The chargers can add up to 140 miles of range to Rivian's R1T pickup and R1S crossover in 20 minutes, according to the automaker.

Rivian is also building out a network of slower Level 2 chargers that are designed for hourslong charging sessions at hotels, restaurants and recreational spots where its customers frequent. Those "Waypoints" units are open to all EVs now, Rivian said. Tesla also has a network of Level 2 chargers that it calls destination chargers.

A Rivian online map of its current fast-charge stations shows most are in California and Oregon. The company has said it wants to put charging near national parks and other locations where its customers are likely to travel.

Rivian Adventure Network stations listed as "coming soon" on the map include several in Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Michigan, North Carolina and Georgia.

"Over time, I hope charging starts to become more ubiquitous and it becomes less of an issue," Scaringe said on the WVFRM podcast. "Because we can rely on that happening independently from us, we've decided to build out our own network. It's many hundreds of millions of dollars to do that, but it creates a much better customer experience."

Rivian's investment in charging is significant because the startup has burned through billions of dollars over the past two years to start production of the R1T, R1S and commercial vans for Amazon. The company's low production numbers and growing financial losses so far have weighed on its stock price, down about 90 percent since going public in late 2021.

McDonough suggested at a recent investor conference that Rivian could receive government funds to build part of its charging network starting in 2024, with the requirement that its chargers be open to the public.

"We expect to be able to start to participate in those forms of credits beginning in 2024," McDonough said at the Bank of America event this month, according to a recording posted online. "We're working toward opening our charging network as well. That will allow us to have access to some of those government funds."

The Biden administration issued final rules in February for companies that want to tap into some of the $7.5 billion in federal funding for charging networks.

Tesla has pledged to open about 3,500 of its Superchargers to the public by the end of 2024, which makes it eligible to seek federal incentives to build charging stations. Tesla, which opened a small number of Superchargers to all EVs in February, currently has about 17,000 fast chargers across the U.S. and plans to double that in two years.

The consultancy EVAdoption estimates that Rivian added 72 charging units at 12 new stations in the first quarter of this year, which was more than the Electrify America network but less than Tesla, EVgo, ChargePoint and EV Connect.

In the next few years, the Rivian Adventure Network could become the fifth-largest charging network behind Tesla, Electrify America, EVgo and ChargePoint, said EVAdoption CEO Loren McDonald.

"They can and likely will become a significant player," McDonald said of the Rivian network. "The key questions are if they decide to slow down once they think they have good coverage where their owners live and road trip and if it makes financial sense" to keep growing, he said.

Before opening up to the public, McDonald added, "they need to focus now on creating a great experience for their customers and make sure they have their network working seamlessly. Then they can turn it into a business."

That could take a few years, he added.