- Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe says dealer franchise laws are "as close as you can get to corruption."
- Many states have laws restricting manufacturers from competing with dealers, but what that means varies by state.
- Some states still won't let Tesla or Rivian sell cars, and those states tend to have powerful dealer lobbies.
Despite its recent partnership with the German auto giant, Rivian has no plans to use Volkswagen's sales network, according to CEO RJ Scaringe. It wouldn't want to. But VW's service network is a far more interesting proposition, as scaling service has proved troublesome for Rivian and fellow direct-to-consumer automaker Tesla. Unfortunately, using VW service centers is probably not going to be possible in the U.S. Scaringe told reporters that dealers have made that almost impossible.
