"catching up" is only a intellectually disingenuous short/media narrative
What Rivian has had going for it, is that they look like the most promising of the EV startups (now less clearly so with the Cybrtruck revealed).
Startup EV makers have the advantage of avoiding the ICE incumbent issue of taking their profitable ICE business from a cash generator to a money pit right when they need cash to ramp up a new EV business. Startup EV makers can just run straight to EVs at full speed.
so, there have been reasons to find Rivian intriguing, but, framing it as some kind of Tesla replacement on the way, that was just agenda driven misinformation.
Yes, but still, why a decade of R&D yet no product ? I mean heck Tesla isn't even purely focused on vehicles ... and yet look.