The leaders of electric vehicle maker Rivian Automotive Inc. are sticking to their production goals for 2022 and plan to soon add a second shift at their Illinois plant despite increasing their forecasted annual EBITDA loss by 15%.
California-based Rivian topped revenue expectations in the second quarter, bringing in $364 million by delivering nearly 4,500 R1 SUVs and electric delivery vehicles. (Amazon in 2019 ordered 100,000 custom-built vans.)
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Chairman and CEO RJ Scaringe and CFO Claire McDonough said the company’s Q2 production was still hampered by supply chain challenges but that many of the company’s suppliers are ramping up production and are ready to help Rivian add that second shift at its Normal, Illinois, facility, which has an annual capacity of 150,000 units. The company’s goal remains to produce 25,000 vehicles in 2022—having been cut in half in March—after making nearly 7,000 in the first half.
“We’ve been very much emphasizing supplier readiness to support this and have worked very closely to look at any parts that we think are constrained or may be constrained,” Scaringe told analysts and investors on a conference call Aug. 11. “Robotics and automation controls, those items […] have already been worked out through the running of the first shift so we expect the bring-on and ramp-up of the second shift to be […] very rapid.”
Rivian’s results—and its adherence to production targets some other young EV manufacturers (such as Arrival and Lucid Group Inc.) have pruned of late—prompted an optimistic response from one prominent analyst, who also noted that the company’s reservations book grew nearly 10% to about 98,000 units.
“The ball is finally rolling,” said Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities. “We believe Rivian is in a great position to capture the massive influx of current and future EV demand.”
For more details about Rivian's Q2, visit our sister brand IndustryWeek.
