Rivian Automotive Inc.
(NASDAQ:RIVN) CEO RJ Scaringe, during the automaker's second-quarter earnings call on Thursday, shared his view on why Chinese auto companies were hard to compete against, and it all comes down to the cost structure.
Chinese Cost Structure Differs From the US Scaringe was asked about how benchmarking Chinese platforms could help develop future Rivian products like the R3 and so on.
The Rivian CEO said that Chinese vehicles, like Rivians, were probably purchased not just by automakers, but also by benchmarking companies to take apart.
Read Also: Elon Musk Dismisses Report Tesla Could Sell Chinese Business for SpaceX Merger: 'Absurdly Fake News' He then said that there was not much of a difference in "how a Chinese vehicle is built relative to a vehicle built in the West in terms of the manufacturing approaches." He added that methods like "high-pressure die castings" and more were deployed across all "best-in-class vehicles." Scaringe then weighed in on the differences between the manufacturing costs between China and the U.S., saying that there was a "much lower labor cost in China," as well as a lower capital cost structure.
