Rivian Missed its 2021 Production Target
Rivian Automotive
Rivian is an American electric vehicle manufacturer, founded in 2009 and headquartered in Irvine, California. Its factory is located in Illinois and it recently announced a second manufacturing site in the state of Georgia, with the start of production there expected in 2024. [1]
The firm is focused on off-road vehicles, with two models currently in its line-up - the R1T pickup truck and R1S sport utility vehicle (SUV). The first R1T was delivered in September, while in December the sale of the first two R1S vehicles took place. [2]
Rivian also has certification for sale in the US of a third vehicle – the Electric Delivery Van (EDV). The EDV is designed and engineered in collaboration with Amazon, its first commercial customer, which has an order of 100,000 EDVs.
Amazon owned around 20% of Rivian, as per a September 30 2021 filing [3]. Rivian went public just two month ago, as it began trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on November 10, 2021 [4].
Recent News
Rivian is one of the hottest startups in the EV arena, but some recent news have been unfavorable. In a filing with the SEC yesterday, the company said it had produced 1,015 vehicles by the end of 2021, while 920 vehicles were delivered by that date. [5].
As such, it missed its 1,200 units production target, for which it had warned in December's Q3 financial results.
Rivian may be backed by Amazon, but that did not stop the tech giant from forming a collaboration with automotive conglomerate Stellantis, as per last week's announcement [6].
Stellantis selected Amazon Web Services (AWS), as its preferred cloud provider, entering Rivian's turf, which had made a similar choice last month [7].
In another challenge to the Amazon-Rivian relationship, Amazon will be the first commercial customer for Stellantis' new Ram ProMaster Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) in 2023.
On the bright side, the Rivian R1T was named "Truck of the Year" by MotorTrend, last month. [8]. As per MotorTrend, the R1T "shows the world a new way to build a pickup and new ways to think about truck design, engineering, and use case."
Poor 2022 Start
These recent news, along with the recent rotation out of the tech sector, have weighed on Rivian's stock, which has started the new year on the back foot.
Last week was not good for RIVN.us, which started the current one with losses of around 7%, whereas the production miss could potentially lead to a negative open today.
Past Performance: Past Performance is not an indicator of future results.
Nikos Tzabouras
Senior Financial Editorial Writer
Nikos Tzabouras is a graduate of the Department of International & European Economic Studies at the Athens University of Economics and Business. He has a long time presence at FXCM, as he joined the company in 2011. He has served from multiple positions, but specializes in financial market analysis and commentary.
With his educational background in international relations, he emphasizes not only on Technical Analysis but also in Fundamental Analysis and Geopolitics – which have been having increasing impact on financial markets. He has longtime experience in market analysis and as a host of educational trading courses via online and in-person sessions and conferences.
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