Dive Brief:

• Electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian Automotive named Sreela Venkataratnam — an 11-year alum of EV competitor Tesla — to the role of its chief accounting officer effective Monday, the Irvine, California-based company said in a Friday securities filing and press release.
• Venkataratnam, who most recently served as vice president of finance and business operations at the Austin, Texas-based Tesla, will receive an annual base salary of $425,000 in association with her appointment and will be eligible for an annual target bonus opportunity of 50% of her base, according to the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. She will also receive a restricted stock unit award with an aggregate value of $6 million, and a one-time cash singing bonus of $20,000, the company said.
• The appointment comes as EV players, both Rivian and Tesla, seek to adjust their strategies amid changing regulation regarding the industry under the Trump administration, as well as to the potential impact of tariffs and other pricing pressures on their supply chains.

Dive Insight:

Venkataratnam will take over for Rivian CFO Claire McDonough as the company’s principal accounting officer, with McDonough having occupied that role on an interim basis, according to the filing. In her role as CAO, Venkataratnam will report directly to McDonough.

“After spending over a decade at Tesla, where I had the privilege of scaling the organization, I’m eager to bring my experience to Rivian,” Venkataratnam wrote in a Friday LinkedIn post. “I look forward to strengthening the finance and accounting functions at Rivian — driving scalable and efficient processes, leveraging technology for financial transformation, and supporting the company’s long-term growth.”

The appointment comes at a time of uncertainty both for Venkataratnam’s former employer Tesla and for the broader EV space,  which is grappling with economic headwinds and a pullback of Biden-era policies which championed electric vehicles.

Shares of Tesla plummeted by 15% on Monday, its steepest drop in five years. While Tesla originally saw a boost in its valuation after President Donald Trump won the presidential election, the EV maker’s stock price has rapidly slid in the early months of the Trump administration — with more than half of its value since its Dec. 17 spike evaporating, representing about $800 billion in market capitalization, CNBC reported Monday. The nosedive comes among an international backlash to Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s activities and close ties with the Trump presidency, with Tesla sales across Europe and other markets seeing sharp declines, CFO Dive previously reported.  

However, the Musk-led EV company is also being buffeted by ongoing uncertainty that is impacting the broader industry, including shifts in regulatory policy: in an executive order signed on the first day of his second term, Trump detailed plans to “eliminate the electric vehicle (EV) mandate and promote true consumer choice,” an order which could have significant impacts on the industry such as potentially scrapping an EV tax credit which made the vehicles more affordable to consumers, CFO Dive previously reported.

Tesla’s CFO, Vaibhav Taneja, also expressed concerns on a recent earnings call over how potential tariffs that could be levied by the Trump administration could impact their supply chains and profitability, CFO Dive previously reported.

Meanwhile, lessening demand, rising competition by legacy players and a shortage of key infrastructure have led to a spat of recent bankruptcies in the EV space, with one-time EV darling Nikola filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month after warning investors of dwindling cash reserves.

Rivian has not proved immune to recent headwinds affecting the EV industry, with the company expecting “external factors” to impact its 2025 results, including “changes to government policies and regulations, and a challenging demand environment,” the company said in its shareholder letter for its Q4 2024 earnings results.

The company expects to see a dip in vehicle deliveries for its full-year 2025, anticipating between 46,000 to 51,000 deliveries for the year, it said. For its full-year 2024, Rivian produced 49,476 vehicles and delivered 51,579 vehicles, according to its shareholder letter.

However, for its Q4 ended Dec. 31, the EV maker also posted its first profitable quarter — reporting $170 million in gross profit driven primarily by “improvements in variable costs, revenue per delivered unit, and fixed costs,” according to its earnings results. During its fourth quarter, Rivian also closed a joint venture with Volkswagen Group, a $5.8 billion partnership launched in November in which the two companies will collaborate to create EVs, according to company announcements.

Its Q4 gross profit was also driven by its “transition” to its “Gen 2” vehicles, and by sales in its software and services segment, CFO McDonough said Friday in an online Q&A. The software segment was responsible for $60 million of its gross profit for Q4 and will be a “key revenue driver” moving into 2025, she said.

In January — just prior to Trump assuming the presidency — the EV maker also received a $6.5 billion loan from the U.S. Department of Energy for the construction of an EV manufacturing facility in Georgia. The loan, made to company subsidiary Rivian New Horizon, LLC along with an equity investment from Rivian, “reinforces the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to strengthen the nation’s manufacturing competitiveness, helping ensure American businesses remain global leaders in the rapidly expanding EV industry,” the DOE said in a press release at the time.

Rivian declined to comment on Venkataratnam’s appointment as CAO beyond its press release.