Rivian has no plans to hire a chief marketing officer, the company told EV on Wednesday, with marketing duties now falling under the newly created chief customer officer role filled earlier this month by Greg Revelle.
The appointment ended a three-month period in which founder and CEO RJ Scaringe served as interim marketing chief while the EV maker prepares for the most important product launch in its history.
In 2025, the company released revamped versions of both its R1T and R1S models, increased brand awareness, and expanded its sales, service, and charging networks.
The EV maker trimmed its annual delivery guidance twice during the year and ended up delivering fewer vehicles in 2025 than in either of the two prior years.
Revelle joined Rivian on January 12 from Revatek, a startup he founded focused on energy storage for off-grid outdoor experiences.
The executive noe oversees the entirety of the customer journey at Rivian, including the go-to-market strategy including sales, marketing, and operations.
“We are excited that Greg is bringing his deep experience across eCommerce, marketing and automotive to Rivian,” Scaringe said. “Greg has a proven track record of leading large teams in a dynamic environment.”
Scaringe’s Interim Role
Scaringe told employees in October that he would lead marketing on an interim basis while the company searches for someone to fill the position for the first time.
The information came in the same internal email that informed staff about Rivian’s third round of layoffs in 2025 — which cut more than 600 employees, or 4.5% of its workforce.
As of the end of 2024, Rivian had about 15,000 employees.
“These are not changes that were made lightly. With the changing operating backdrop, we had to rethink how we are scaling our go-to-market functions,” Scaringe said in the internal email at the time.
Although the company did not specify which teams were affected, an internal source told Bloomberg that the layoffs affected commercial roles across servicing and sales departments.
Amid the marketing changes announced last October, the heads of Rivian‘s marketing experiences and creative studio teams started reporting directly to Scaringe.
Go-to-Market Restructuring
The company’s founder and CEO said in the October email that Rivian was “streamlining” the customer experience as part of a broader reorganization of its Go to Market functions.
The EV maker moved its vehicle operations team and integrating it with the service division, according to the email. Meanwhile, Rivian‘s delivery and mobile operations will now sit inside the sales division.
The restructuring comes as Rivian seeks to scale from selling approximately 50,000 vehicles annually to hundreds of thousands with the launch of the R2.
Despite the marketing overhaul, expanded sales and service network, revamped models, and higher brand awareness, Rivian ended 2025 with fewer deliveries than both 2024 and 2023.
The company delivered 42,247 vehicles last year, down from 51,579 in 2024 and 50,122 in 2023.
Marketing Strategy
Rivian launched its first major advertising campaign in May 2025, approximately 12 months before starting R2 deliveries.
Built on stories collected from Rivian owners across the US, the campaign aimed to increase brand awareness and was launched when the $7,500 EV Tax Credit was still in place.
When asked about Rivian‘s marketing goals in an interview with Digiday last May, the VP of Marketing and Brand Experience Denise Cherry pointed to a long-term approach.
“It’s a really pivotal time in our business where we are making that step change. We currently sell 50,000-60,000 vehicles a year. In the next couple years, we want hundreds of thousands of vehicles a year,” Cherry said back then.
Cherry joined Rivian in September 2019 as senior director of design and retail development. She was promoted to VP of marketing and brand experience in January 2024.
R2 Stakes
The leadership gap is notable given that Rivian is months away from launching the R2, a midsize SUV with a starting price of $45,000 that is expected to significantly expand the company’s reach into more affordable segments.
With its current R1 models, the company’s average selling price stands at approximately $88,000 — according to Scaringe.
Following the company’s Autonomy and AI Day held at Rivian’s Palo Alto offices in December, the next major event for the brand is a dedicated R2 showcase that Scaringe announced during the third-quarter earnings call in early November.
At that call, Scaringe confirmed that the first version of the R2 will launch as a dual-motor model with other variants following later in the year.
Rivian is expected to host the event later this quarter to reveal the full R2 lineup, including all trims, features, pricing, and colors.
Financial Pressure
Rivian faces slower-than-expected EV demand, a lack of new products until the R2, and continued earnings losses.
The company lost approximately $2.8 billion in the first three quarters of 2025, with fourth-quarter results scheduled for disclosure on February 12.
In the first quarter of 2025, Rivian posted its second consecutive quarter with gross profit, a notable improvement from prior quarters.
However, the result for the January–March quarter was largely enabled by the sale of the majority of regulatory credits allocated for the entire year.
Three months later, in June 2025, Rivian received a $1 billion equity investment from Volkswagen Group after achieving its second quarter of gross profit, triggering a milestone in the companies’ $5.8 billion joint venture agreement.
Stock Performance
Rivian shares have fallen more than 30% from their 2025 high of $22.73 on December 22, erasing gains driven by the company’s Autonomy and AI Day on December 11.
At that event, executives unveiled plans to equip upcoming models with LiDAR sensors to achieve higher levels of autonomous driving, alongside the company’s first in-house developed autonomy processor.
The stock hit a new three-month low of $15.12 on Tuesday before closing at $15.27, down 3.05% on the day.
Shares were trading at $15.36 in Wednesday’s premarket session as of press time.
The stock has lost about 22% year to date amid missed delivery targets and reports of struggles at its Volkswagen AG software joint venture.
