Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe didn’t just have “one more thing” as a surprise reveal for his audience — he had two.
Elliot Ross Studio, INC
Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe surprised his audience with the unexpected reveal of the smaller R3 SUV.Rivian’s “one more thing” was a nod to Steve Jobs’ habit of teasing one final product reveal at events.Scaringe further surprised the audience by unveiling a high-performance variant of the R3, the R3X.
After Rivian unveiled its long-awaited R2 electric SUV on Thursday, CEO RJ Scaringe took a cue from the Apple playbook.
Scaringe stunned his audience with the reveal of the R3 midsize crossover, catching the audience by surprise.
“And I’m really, really excited to talk about R2’s sibling,” he said, as audible gasps can be heard in the room, “which we call R3.”
You can watch the reveal in the video below, Scaringe makes the announcement at the 24:45 minute mark.
After the applause and cheers died down and the surprise EV was driven onto the stage, Scaringe made a comment poking fun at the reaction.
“You didn’t expect that ‘one more thing’ here,” he said.
That comment — and perhaps the whole surprise reveal — was a thinly veiled reference to Apple cofounder Steve Jobs’ habit of making last-minute product announcements, introducing “one more thing” after seemingly finishing his keynote speech.
The catchphrase has become so closely associated with Jobs that Apple has leaned into it even after his death. In 2014, CEO Tim Cook’s “one more thing” was revealed, in an emotional speech, to be the first-generation Apple Watch.
More recently, Apple used the phrase for the title of an event invitation in 2020 that would be the reveal of the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini.
But the R3 wasn’t the only surprise that Scaringe had up his sleeve, who added that “there’s one more thing.”
“Looking at R3, we wanted to take everything that’s embodied and put it into an even higher-performance package,” he said, as a sizzle reel for the R3’s off-road, performance variant appeared on-screen. “This is something we call R3X.”
The Rivian R3X performance variant
Elliot Ross Studio, INC
With his double-surprise reveal, Scaringe seems to have taken Jobs’ penchant for theatricality to heart.
