Rivian misses 25,000 production target, but not by much

In the fourth quarter, Rivian produced 10,020 vehicles and delivered 8,054 after adding a second production shift to improve parts supply. In its third-quarter earnings call, the company said it had over 100,000 pre-orders for his R1T and R1S, and a multi-year order for his 100,000 vans from Amazon.

A 2022 production mishap capped a difficult year for one of the world’s most promising EV startups. When the start-up began trading on his Nasdaq exchange, it briefly had a higher market valuation than Ford Motor Company. Rivian’s stock is down 87% since its November 2021 initial public offering.

Rivian’s market capitalization is now below $15 billion, after a high of well over $100 billion shortly after its IPO.

In a letter to employees on Tuesday, CEO RJ Scaringe praised the company’s employees for overcoming setbacks.

“We had a lot of headwinds in 2022,” Scaringe said. “Given supply chain issues that have forced factories to shut down for 20 days, closing early on 50 days in the last 12 months, and severe weather conditions that have forced us to close for an additional five days, our team remains focused. We continued working on it, and we will challenge together.”

Although Rivian missed its official production target, Scaringe said it was able to push 25,051 vehicles off the assembly line. He explained that the 714 vehicles are still in the process of full completion as they await parts, software validation, wheel alignment, charging and other finishing touches.

Rivian’s share price fell 5.9% to $17.34 in pre-production-announced trading after the market closed. In after-hours trading, the stock was little changed.

Baird Equity Research forecasts 10,700 Rivian deliveries in the fourth quarter, blaming supply chain issues. “We anticipate a significant increase in production in 2023 as our normal factories continue to operate.”

Like other EV makers, supply chain disruptions are putting pressure on Rivian, which also shelved plans to build delivery vans in Europe with Mercedes-Benz in December, Reuters said on Tuesday. previously delayed the start of production of the smaller R2 family at a planned $5 billion plant in Georgia to 2026.