Rivian's Changing the Charging Game, One Destination at a Time

EVgo, Electrify America and ChargePoint manage the gross share of America's public charging network. In recent years, partnerships between automakers and businesses have established mass charging destinations at shopping centers and Starbucks locations.

Rivian, the budding electric vehicle maker, is bucking the trend, establishing its Rivian Adventure Network at outdoor destinations and waypoints. Like the Tesla Supercharger network, Rivian has placed its Adventure Charging Network strategically around the U.S. where people on their way rather than where they are headed to.

The company recently opened its next-generation site, the Joshua Tree Charging Outpost in California, and plans to have additional sites in Texas, Colorado, Illinois, Montana, Pennsylvania, Michigan and New York open soon.

The new-generation stations deliver up to 900 volts of rapid charging and are able to be used by vehicles with Combined Charging System (CCS) and North American Charging Standard (NACS) connections. They feature a larger display and tap-to-pay functionality.

The Joshua Tree Charging Outpost is more than just a stopover to gain electrons like what is offered in most public charging locations. Rivian revealed the logic behind its locations, offerings and design in an exclusive interview with Newsweek.

The Charging Outpost, and Rivian Spaces, the company's showroom concept, hold fast to the principles of revitalization, reusing and maintaining. There is no cookie cutter formula. All Rivian locations, regardless of location or purpose, are unique.

"It starts with site selection, picking, finding the right building," Denise Cherry, vice president of marketing at Rivian told Newsweek. "You don't want to be in a strip mall with a bunch of other things. You want them to feel like really beautiful, special locations, and finding buildings that have history and character and a story behind them," she said.

Among its nationwide network, Rivian has restored an old theater complex, reopening it as the Rivian South Coast Theater, in Laguna, California. The company's Yosemite National Park site was a gas station built in the 1920s that has been converted to an electric vehicle Charging Outpost.

"The story of how you can transform that kind of previously less-than-sustainable infrastructure into something that really becomes a beacon for the future was really important to us," Cherry said.

The company employs an in-house real estate team that identifies potential sites based on a long list of requirements and priorities, showing them to Cherry before final sign off. She estimates that she toured around 40 sites near Joshua Tree National Park over two years before the company settled on its location, on 29 Palms Highway, near Interstate 10 but far enough off the beaten path to reach those who are traveling via byways rather than highways.

Cherry said that the company identifies potential sites by looking at locations on the way to the destination its current and potential customers travel to, spots with character and architecture, "because we don't want to build something completely ground up. The most sustainable building you can have is something that already exists. Creating something that we can adaptively reuse is really important to us."

Other considerations include budget and any sort of incentives that may be available from local, state or federal governments or organizations.

For its Joshua Tree site, and the second-generation of Charging Outposts, Rivian prioritized having space for charging as well as a playground for children, to wait while a vehicle is charged and to explore showcased Rivian vehicles. It's all in an effort to deliver, "an authentic brand experience," Cherry said.

A theater, coffee shop, surf shop and retail spaces are among the tenants of other Rivian locations.

When visitors arrive at the Outpost, or any Spaces site, they'll be surrounded by materials, architectural character and design indicative of Rivian's brand identity. "We'll use a lot of warm woods. We'll use a lot of natural fabrics. We try make sure things are incredibly sustainable. Most of the furniture that you see in every single space is vintage or second hand that the team has upcycled and reupholstered and brought back to life," Cherry said, also pointing out that things that have to be created from scratch are often crafted by local artisans.

"Both Joshua Tree and Yosemite have these amazing kind of coffee tables that are made of recycled sawdust and tile that are incredibly hearty. Kids can climb up on them and you can put throw your shoes up on them, but they have this beautiful, sustainable story in there. They're both made by a local California maker. We try and make sure that there's always stories in all of the curated pieces that we're creating," she said.

Rivian's sites are open to the public, meaning those with battery-electric cars, trucks and SUV from other manufacturers are welcome to use it. While also offering them charging opportunities, Rivian will not so subtly be working to conquest them into becoming Rivian owners.

Starting in the first quarter of 2025, Joshua Tree location visitors will be able to take an experiential drive at the outpost. Prospective and current Rivian customers can sign up to experience off-roading using Rivian-owned vehicles. There will be a cost associated with the experiences. As of the publication of this article, the price has not been publicly announced.

"One of the reasons we're super excited about this one is because all of the test drives that you do in the city, they're incredible, but they're not showing the full capability of the vehicle, just by the nature of being in on a paved road," Cherry said, emphasizing that those who sign up will be able to, "learn and be educated and take these amazing adventures and see what the car isn't enables you to do, but still feel like you're not, you know, using your daily driver to do that, per se."

Rivian goes even further. Not only are these outposts designed to be where vehicles charge and families unwind and explore, they are integrated as parts of communities.

"That's what was really important to us," Cherry said, explaining that Rivian allows the community where their Spaces or Outposts are dictate what they should be.

"Laguna is a great example in that when we first started that project four years ago nobody wanted us to be there, because they were like, 'We don't want to turn our movie theater into a dealership.' And so it really became a constant conversation with the community, with the city, with everyone," Cherry said. Rivian wanted to be an active part of the community and they listened to the needs of the people of the area.

"Working really closely with with those municipalities, with those policymakers and with those community members to make sure that we're delivering on that even after we're open. Laguna in particular is such a great story because now I think we've developed an incredible rapport with that entire community."