San Francisco, Jul 4 (IANS): Tesla CEO Elon Musk is widely credited for changing the perception about electric cars which were often viewed as glorified golf carts. Tesla has proved that electric cars could be suave and desirable. Now a 36-year-old man, RJ Scaringe, is on a mission to change the way people think about pickup trucks and SUVs.

Scaringe is the CEO of Rivian Automotive, a Michigan-based electric vehicle start-up which is planning to roll out an electric pickup and electric SUV next year.

But even before the company sold a single SUV or truck, Rivian got big backers which helped it raise about $1.7 billion. If Ford Motor Company earlier this year announced an investment of $500 million, Rivian accepted a $700 million investment from Amazon in February, according to a report in Forbes.

Scaringe has been the CEO of Rivian for more than a decade now, fine tuning the complete process of launching his electric vehicles that could give Tesla cars a run for their money.

But unlike Musk, Scaringe has kept himself quite low profile. Scaringe has just about 8,100 followers on Twitter, compared to the 27.2 million followers of the Tesla CEO. Musk joined Twitter in June 2009, while Scaringe joined the social media platform only in December 2017.

Things have, however, changed dramatically over the past couple of years. Scaringe can no longer be seen as media shy. As Rivian prepares for the launch of its vehicles next year, the 36-year-old CEO is now getting profiled more and more.

Scaringe founded Rivian soon after graduating from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York and earning a PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan Automotive Laboratory.

Rivian's R1T five-passenger electric pickup promises "unmatched capability, efficiency, utility and performance", superb control on tough terrain, range up to 400 miles and a payload capacity of 800 kg.

Its R1S electric SUV can seat seven passengers and promises a range up to 400 miles with 0-60 acceleration in three seconds.