Rivian just quietly dropped one of the more interesting moves in the EV space this year. The electric truck maker has spun off a new company called Also, a Palo Alto-based micromobility startup focused on building small, affordable electric vehicles that could be 10 to 50 times more efficient than the cars and SUVs clogging American roads today.
The venture launches with a $105 million investment from Eclipse Ventures, and Rivian retains a “substantial minority stake” in the new company. Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe will serve as Also’s chairman and sit on its board, signaling this isn’t some throwaway side project.
Also plans to unveil its flagship product in early 2026, targeting the U.S. and European markets first before expanding globally. Details remain thin, but the company describes an entire range of “exciting, small EVs” built on a vertically integrated technology platform with motors, batteries, electronics, and software all developed in-house.
The pitch is straightforward and hard to argue with. Road transportation remains the leading contributor to global CO2 emissions, and the data backing Also’s thesis is stark. Eighty percent of car trips cover 15 miles or less, and half are under six miles. Americans are routinely piloting 5,000-pound SUVs to grab groceries three miles away.
Also’s job postings reveal the company’s ambitions in blunt terms. The mission is to “replace many local car, truck and SUV miles with ones on vehicles that are more affordable, more enjoyable and 10-50x more efficient.” That efficiency claim is massive, and if even partially realized, it would represent a fundamental rethinking of how Americans handle short-distance travel.
There’s also the possibility that Also products could share retail space with Rivian. The press release noted that the two companies expect “opportunities for future collaboration, which may include selectively using some of Rivian’s retail footprint.” That’s a smart play — it gives Also instant access to physical showrooms without burning cash on standalone locations.
This spinoff arrives at a moment when the American EV market is caught in a bizarre contradiction. Automakers keep building bigger, heavier electric vehicles to match the size expectations of truck and SUV buyers, while the fundamental promise of electrification — efficiency and sustainability — gets diluted with every added pound. The so-called segment creep, where each new generation of vehicle swells beyond its predecessor, has become an industry-wide problem that nobody seems willing to confront head-on.
Rivian itself isn’t immune to this tension. Its R1T pickup and R1S SUV are massive machines. But the company has been inching toward smaller products with its upcoming $45,000 R2 SUV due in 2026 and the even more compact R3 and R3X rugged hatchbacks slated to follow. Also takes that trajectory to its logical extreme.
The timing is notable for another reason. Rivian is already deep into a $5.8 billion joint venture with Volkswagen Group that will provide Rivian-based electrical architecture for future VW EVs. Now with Also, Scaringe is placing bets across the entire spectrum of electric mobility — from full-size trucks down to whatever ultra-compact form factor Also has in mind.
Whether American consumers will actually downsize remains the billion-dollar question. The U.S. market has stubbornly resisted small vehicles for decades, and cultural attachment to big trucks and SUVs runs deep. But gas prices, insurance costs, and parking nightmares in urban areas are slowly chipping away at that resistance.
Also isn’t trying to convince everyone to ditch their pickup trucks. It’s betting that millions of daily trips simply don’t require one. If the company can deliver something genuinely fun, genuinely affordable, and dramatically more efficient, it might not need to convince anyone at all. The math will do the talking.
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