There’s been an ongoing trend in executive compensation that sets hugely ambitious targets for CEOs and ties them to the stock price. Rivian’s version of it involves giving its Founder and CEO, RJ Scaringe, roughly 400x his salary in stock and option awards.
The news from Rivian yesterday was mixed, at best. The company is still reporting losses, even if those losses are narrowing. There are fewer, but faster loans. Journalists like the R2, but are people ordering them?
Nissan isn’t waiting to find out if its electric cars would be successful or not, and is instead going to build trucks. Hyundai and Kia saw a little uptick in EV sales and a huge increase in hybrid sales. Is this a gas-price effect or just the new normal?
It’s the weekend, and the weekend means racing. Porsche is back one more time with one of its greatest liveries and I like to end The Morning Dump with something fun on Friday.
Rivian Is Playing With Billions Of Dollars
I see my fair share of Rivians around town, so it’s clear that people are buying them. It’s a brand people seem to know. The company still only has two products built on one platform and, while it reached gross profitability last year, it’s still losing money as it continues to expand into a part of the market that has more volume.
This is an oversimplification, but if you think of the R1S/R1T as Rivian’s Model S, then the upcoming Rivian R2 is that company’s Model Y.
From a financial standpoint, Q1 saw an increase in revenue of about 11% and a net loss that dropped to $416 million, which is less than the $545 million the company lost in Q1 of 2025. On the R2 and R3, news was mixed as well. The Biden Administration gave a huge loan to Rivian on the way out of the door, and it sounds like that loan is being reduced, though delivered faster:
We are pleased to partner with the U.S. Department of Energy (“DOE”) to grow our manufacturing footprint in Georgia. We made the strategic decision to increase the initial phase of production capacity by 50%, bringing it to 300,000 units for our mid-sized vehicle platform. This change is expected to boost cost efficiency, while still providing significant room for future expansion in later phases.The up to $4.5 billion DOE loan ($4,006 million principal and $494 million capitalized interest) to build our Georgia facility provides low cost financing that will enable Rivian to grow American jobs and establish stronger U.S. technology and manufacturing leadership while further scaling our customer base.
Instead of two loans totaling $6.6 billion to create capacity for 400,000 vehicles, it’s one loan for 300,000 vehicles. Is that a positive signal? A negative one? Rivian wouldn’t release R2 deposit information, so it’s unclear, although the Scaringe told everyone that journalists and the like really enjoy the R2.
What is clear is that Rivian wants Scaringe to be compensated in a way similar to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is usually the richest man alive and has a trillion-dollar payday ahead if he can make Tesla even more valuable. As Bloomberg reports, Scaringe’s salary has stayed low, but his options are way higher, even if that money isn’t a guarantee:
For Scaringe to collect his windfall, Rivian must hit certain performance targets over time on metrics including adjusted operating income, cash flow and share price targets ranging from $40 to $140. In connection with last year’s award, the company’s compensation committee canceled a 2021 plan for the CEO, saying it contained goals that were unlikely to be attained, according to a filing.
That package would have been worth more than $10 billion if shares reached the top target of $295. Instead, they peaked at $172 in November 2021 and have since fallen to around $16.
Scaringe was a billionaire in the wake of Rivian’s IPO, with his stake worth about $1.2 billion. Today, his stake is worth less than $200 million, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, after he transferred stock and options now worth about $125 million as part of a divorce settlement last year.
Rivian’s share price was roughly $15.50 this morning after the stock opened down. To get to his full reward he’ll need to make the company so valuable that its stock price increases by more than 9x. If that happens, the shareholders of Rivian all get very rich. This model worked for Tesla, although I think of Tesla as an outlier in most ways.
And, hey, this $1.2 million base salary isn’t bad. I’m sure I could figure out how to live on just $1.2 million a year.
Nissan Kills Its EV Plan, Is Just Going To Build ICE-Powered Trucks
I already had the debate about whether or not Nissan’s move to build a bunch of trucks is about environmental law changes or just demand, and the conclusion is: All of the above. No one wants a Nissan Ariya, and whatever EV that Nissan was going to build in Canton, Mississippi probably wouldn’t have been a hit. If you want a Nissan EV you are still free to buy a Leaf.
That’s the conclusion Nissan seems to have come to, per Automotive News:
The automaker instead is pivoting to build a range of truck-based vehicles at the 4.7 million-square-foot assembly plant in Canton, Miss., starting with a revival of the outdoorsy Xterra as an affordable, electrified SUV.
Nissan, in a statement to Automotive News, confirmed it has canceled all programs involving U.S.-made EVs to “better align with market conditions, customer demand and Nissan’s updated strategic direction.”
The Canton plant, which builds the Frontier pickup and Altima sedan, was slated to be at the center of the automaker’s EV push.
A hybrid truck will be cool, probably.
Kia And Hyundai Both Dropped Year-Over-Year In April, But It’s Not A Big Deal
I think I have a new favorite way for a company to report a monthly drop in sales. Kia, which is still having its best year ever, saw a small decline in sales in April. Here’s how Kia wrote this up in a press release:
Continuing to attract a broad range of new customers with award-winning electrified and ICE powertrains, Kia America delivered 72,703 units in April, reflecting a 3 percent year-over-year variance due to elevated demand in April of 2025. The brand still set a new year-to-date total sales record of 279,718 vehicles sold through the first four months of the year, which marks a 2 percent increase over the first four months of 2025.
The Astros are experiencing a 5.5 game variance in the AL West standings due a lack of arms. The point Kia is making here, and it’s not untrue, is that the launching of tariffs last year contributed to an unexpected increase in sales from people trying to get a car before prices went up.
What’s more important here is that Kia saw hybrid sales rise by 97%. Kia has a strong mix of hybrids, ICE-powered cars and trucks, and EVs, so it can respond well to whatever the market is. Take whatever I said with Kia and you can apply it to Hyundai, which saw a small decrease in sales while still retaining its best first four months ever. It was also the best month for Hyundai hybrids ever.
Apple Livery Is So Weird But So Good
IMSA is at Laguna Seca this weekend, and Porsche is revisiting one of its greatest liveries for the race.
“We’ve enjoyed a longstanding relationship with Porsche, going back to 1980 when a Porsche race car first carried the Apple logo,” Oliver Schusser, Vice President Apple Music, Sports and Beats, said. “That moment marked the beginning of a shared passion for innovation and creativity that continues to define our collaboration today. As Apple celebrates its 50th anniversary, we’re proud to once again partner with Porsche on a design that pays tribute to that original 1980 livery.”
That’s so cool.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
You knew it was coming, right? Kacey Musgrave’s new album “Middle of Nowhere” debuted today, and I’ve already listened to it through a few times. The surprise favorite so far is “Horses and Divorces.” This is Miranda Lambert and Kacey Musgraves, who had some sort of incomprehensible beef, hashing it out like a Waffle House. The best line?
I can’t believe we don’t share any exes
‘Cause we both love cowboys and we’re both from Texas
We both love Willie, but I mean really
What asshole doesn’t like Willie?
What asshole doesn’t like Willie, indeed.
The Big Question
What’s the best weird livery? Like, Gulf Oil is perfect, but the Apple design is a lot of things happening at once, which is why I love it.
Top photo: Rivian
No one is worth that amount of money. I don’t care if you cure Cancer, AIDS and have the solution to world peace.
This is the stupidity of tech-bros infecting every other industry. CEO pay in the car business was already more than decent, but a far cry from the obnoxious levels seen in the tech world.
Tech bros certainly set a terrible precedent for pay. You add in people running around saying silicon valley is the richest area in the us. But its all tied to stock in companies that rarely if ever make a profit and certainly not a large percentage profit. It’s all smoke and mirrors. Borrowed money from stock, interest only loans. Someone else is supporting their behavior and spending.
I’m sorry but cancer treatments in just the U.S. for just 1 year equals over $200B if someone cures all cancer it is entirely justified getting paid . 2% of that savings. honestly pay them $200B a year it’s still worth it, so a family never loses a loved one to cancer, and nobody has to go through the current horrible treatments.
CEO compensation is out of control, whether by stock or by actual pay. Being paid via stock options should not be a thing – or at least, they should be taxed as ordinary income. If the execs believe in the company, let them buy the stock with their own money, post-tax, just like the rest of us.
Taxation should be FAR more progressive than it is. Bring back the good old days of 90%+ marginal tax rates on both individual and corporate profits. Bring back the deductions too – at least it incentivized charitable giving and reinvestment rather than stock buybacks. I’m quite a few times the median individual income and I don’t pay poop for income taxes. I could pay 50% more and it really wouldn’t effect my standard of living much at all. But maybe we could have a decent social safety net in this country in case I lose my job, decent infrastructure, and some better public transit. Of course, at the same time, not giving the military $1.5 TRILLION a year to blow shit up would help with all of those things too. I am all for the best defense being a strong offense, but we have thoroughly jumped that shark in this country.
We need more like you, Kevin.
My name is also Kevin. Does that count?
I didn’t say we need more Kevins in general, Kevin.
There is a shortage of Kevin’s you know. Much less Kevin’s being made now than 30 years ago.
Lordy, be careful what you wish for, that might get scary in a hurry!
Best weird livery?
I know it was only animation, but in
Doc HollywoodCARs (the first one), I have to tip my hat to Lighting McQueen’s C1 corvette-inspired 2-tone paint job WITH freakin’ white walls.c’mon, admit it, we all thought that was pretty cool.
I long for the days when racing cars were just painted in their nation’s or team’s colors and had no advertising on them at all.
Edit: reading comprehension fail, carry on Matt!
Rae Roberts does amazing livery and canvas prints. She specializes mostly in Porsches, but she has also done livery for Mercedes. Her work is awesome. Check her out at her website: https://raeroberts.us/
Her Instagram is cool, too as it shows her process and her driving, too.
I really hate that we’re chasing stock price as an objective of “value”
The old Lotus black and gold is still the coolest.
Ugh, I can’t think of a more useless weight adding, space robbing “feature” than body-on-frame. It’s main benefit is being cheap to build, so it gets hyped for being theoretically slightly better at the one marginal use case everyone dreams about but almost nobody actually does.
It’s easier to jack up as well. Just pick any spot on the frame and start pumping.
Granting stock options via dilution and maximizing share holder value seem to be incongruent with each other.
I cannot give my precious shits about Rivian until I start seeing R3s becoming available. In green. Until then, the brand is irrelevant to me.
At least Rivan’s CEO is mature enough to not demand a $420.69M pay package so they have that going for them.
Best Weird livery? It may be fictional, but the Talladega Nights ME car is an all-timer in my book. Bonus points for the Wonder Bread car with the Fig Newtons windshield banner.
If you’re going movies, The Chicken Pit livery which looked like plucked chicken skin in the movie Stroker Ace.
Goodsmile Racing in Super GT, or the original Red Bull F1 test car since it’s the only time they’ve ran a livery that actually looks like the can.
“outdoorsy Xterra” As opposed to the over-saturated indoorsy market easily identified by flush bumpers.
My favorite “weird” liveries include the Takata Dome NSX “seatbelt” livery, and the ’98/’99 Raybrig NSX with the big red “RAYBRIG” on top of the purplish-blue. Then there was the R8 LMP “Crocodile”. And Jeff Gordon’s Chromaluision Monte Carlo. I’m sure there’s more that aren’t just weird sponsorships. (Fruit of the Loom DRM Lancia, Mark Martin’s Viagra car.)
TBQ: Jeff Gordon’s T Rex car
That car deserves an article for just how much it bent the NASCAR rules book into an utter pretzel while still being legal. Of course they outlawed most of the innovations immediately.
We need a weekly column that goes into individual detail about all the racing cheater cars that have been developed. Most would be NASCAR but I absolutely love reading them.
Best weird livery? The Red Lobster March 83G
Oooh, that’s a good one! Now I’m hungry!
…and now I’m wondering why Red Lobster never sponsored an Unlimited Hydroplane team. The boats literally look like lobsters.
I was going to say Pink Pig as one of the best, but this is true perfection.
That is just so awesome…now I want to see a “Rock Lobster” livery…
“Rock…Rock…Rock…ROCK LOBSTER!”
Rivian will have capacity do produce 300,000 vehicles a year which is good, but to date their most successful year was 2024 with 51,500 sold. Tesla was an anomaly with a dose of Elon’s cult of personality. RJ reminds me of the Verizon guy.
Nissan -> more trucks. I suspect that may work out well for them if Trump can figure out how to get out of the war he started without looking like a schmuck. The Magic 8 ball told me “Outlook not so good”.
Or maybe a young, well kept Steve-O!
Definitely saw the top shot and wondered why it was a picture of Steve-O
I’m just glad Steve-O found a profitable career after Jackass. I hope he gets his pay package.
Damn beat me to it!
Steve-O is running an animal sanctuary in Tennessee these days which is better than whatever that ass at Rivian is doing.
There’s a huge trend toward extreme stock-based compensation packages for executives. The rationale is they are explicitly motivated drive shareholder value with the less-publicly touted benefit that they can avoid massive income tax bills by only paying capital gains tax.
The problem is that only focusing on near-term shareholder value shifts emphasis away from innovation and long-term growth towards cost-cutting and layoffs: “why invest in the future when I bump the stock price tomorrow and get my stock bonus?”
Time and time again, this strategy cripples otherwise successful companies (look at Boeing adopting McDonnell Douglas’s cost-cutting management, GM governing by committee, etc). Unfortunately, there’s not much the average joe can do about it other than “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” and start investing yourself on the stock market to at least share somewhat in the prize pool while it exists.
Correct on two topics. Highly diminished taxes to the 1% for taking stock options instead of a salary. We in the middle class can’t do that.
Definitely not to the executive level, no, but I always tell people to take full advantage of any employee stock purchase programs their employer might have available. I paid for multiple cars, vacations, and our house thanks to discounted ESPP shares.
Don’t forget GE relentlessly cutting off parts of itself until it’s now mainly a licensing operation with all consumer-facing products bearing the GE logo being generic made in China that some middleman got the rights to slap the GE name on.
Won’t someone think of the shareholders?
That is literally ALL they are thinking about.
Branding/licensing income and no product liability. Next to nothing for staffing costs. It’s the perfect Wall Street dream company.
Well that’s funny, however remember about 80% of stock holders are investment firms using our retirement funds. So you screw that up no one retires but the rich
Funny how the stock marked turned all companies into “emoyee owned” while at the same time screwing them all over.
We need to go back to the stakeholder model instead of the current shareholder model. Wealth tax the snot out of anything over $10 million or so. Stonk or not. With deductions for reinvesting in the company and community surrounding the company.
You know, with these pay packages I’m starting to think there’s a very big club that I’m not in.
It’s a very small club, actually.
That depends entirely on whether you measure the number of people in it or the wealth they control.
“Vice President Apple Music, Sports and Beats”
Ugh. Hard to say why I find this so repellant.
Because it’s missing a comma after the penultimate item in a list.
Are you sure? He could technically be the VP of “Sports n’ Beats”. I can’t guarantee that isn’t one thing. 😀
I too am a huge believer in the oxford comma.
That’s totally how I interpreted it before reading Mondial’s comment. Damn missing commas!
I am a staunch proponent of the Oxford comma, and I’m also an old married man far from a divorce. But if I ever wind up in the dating pool, I swear I’m going to put something in the dating site blurb like “Interests include music, the outdoors and a fanatic devotion to the Oxford comma.” My new lady would be required to appreciate the stupid humor.
I’ll die before I give up my Oxford comma.
I work with a bunch of journalists and editors, this is an argument I bring up frequently 🙂
Next time you guys meet can you ask them a question for me? Why don’t unions ever buy the company they work for and run it as an employee owned business where they get to make the decisions. It’s almost like they prefer bitching and squeezing money out of the company just like the stock holders except without any investment or they know they couldn’t run the the company any better.
These guys are mostly energy experts, I doubt they’d have any insight into that. It’s a good question though.
I’m a two-time college dropout who can’t correctly use a semi-colon to save my life, and I’ll fight for the Oxford comma like the third monkey trying to board the ark.
That apple livery is very nice. They do nail their designs.
Look. I really do like Rivian. But this is just absurd. Did VW getting in on the action totally remove any sense from this brand? I’m rooting for them, but they need to throw this compensation plan in the trash for at least a few years. Lets turn a profit and get those next two vehicles on the road first.
I hear you. If I had a potential billion dollar payday I’d be spending time everyday thinking about how I’ll spend all that money