Rivian has filed a treatment against the US government in an attempt to recover a “full refund” for the tariffs it paid under President Trump’s “Liberation Day” taxes, which the Supreme Court later ruled unconstitutional.
The automobile industry is included in a long line of companies seek such returns. In April, Rivian CFO Claire McDonough said she expected the company to get a refund in the “tens of millions of dollars.”
Rivian’s move comes as the company is in the midst of launching its first mass-market SUV, the R2. He expects to ship about 20,000 to 25,000 of them by the end of this year and help the company finally reach profitability. However, achieving that goal may not happen until 2028, as Rivian is currently plowing a lot of money into autonomous vehicle development. The company recently sold shares to raise about $1.3 billion to help pay off the cash balance in the meantime.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in the U.S. Court of International Trade, names the U.S. government, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott as defendants. CBP collected the tariffs on behalf of the Trump administration, which sought to justify them under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
In a statement to TechCrunch, CBP said more than $121 billion in both “potential and certified returns have been accepted for processing.” The agency did not comment specifically on the lawsuit.
Earlier this month, the Cato Institute he wrote that $71 billion had been paid, which “suggests that frictions built into the refund process created ‘barriers to importers seeking refunds.’
According to Rivian’s lawsuit, the company wants a guarantee that it will get its money — and the right amount — from the government.
“Although the Supreme Court vacated the tariffs, this separate action remains necessary because importers who have paid IEEPA tariffs, including Plaintiffs, are not guaranteed a refund of amounts previously paid based on the Supreme Court’s decision,” Rivian’s lawyers wrote in the complaint.
Rivian did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe told Reuters last year after the tariffs were imposed that he expected the cost of each vehicle to increase by “a few thousand dollars” as a result. By the end of 2025, he said the company had mitigated the impact in the “low hundreds of dollars.”
“The resulting environment of trade retaliation or other practical or additional trade restrictions or barriers has harmed and could continue to harm our ability to obtain necessary raw materials, parts and equipment and could harm our ability to sell our products and services at prices that customers are willing to pay,” the company he wrote in a regulatory filing earlier this year.
Rivian is asking the commercial court to declare the invoices “unlawful”, issue a refund with interest and pay any relevant court fees.
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