According to new information, Rivian has hired Jeff Alves, a former hardware director at Apple. With over 10 years of working experience with Apple, Jeff is one with a great understanding of hardware and will impact the EV maker’s business. As Jeff Alves joins the American EV manufacturing company, he’ll serve as a senior director of battery engineering.
Currently, Rivian sources its batteries from Samsung SDI and uses its technology to optimize battery performance. These technologies include charging and overall battery usage in driving and other use cases. Jeff’s work will touch on these areas, aiming to bring new technology and features to coming vehicles from the American EV manufacturer.
At Apple, Jeff helped to build the charging system of the first-gen Apple Watch, as well as that on other Apple products. He isn’t also a new face to the EV world, as he also impacted the patents for the Apple car project that millions were looking forward to seeing. While this project isn’t on board any more, Jeff will still have a shot at the EV industry as he joins the Rivian team.
Well, Jeff Alves isn’t the only former Apple employee on Rivian’s board, as the EV manufacturer has developed a taste for ex-Apple workers. The likes of Jonas Reinke and DJ Novotney are ex-Apple workers who now work with Rivian. So Jeff will be around familiar faces as he works to develop or improve upon the Rivian battery system.
With the coming Rivian models, we might get to see Jeff’s impact on the EV brand. At this point, Rivian currently has two EV models, the R1S and R1T, and the first is an electric SUV and the second is an electric pickup truck with impressive styling and performance. There are also the Rivian R2 and R3 models that are preparing to launch, and they are both SUV models.