Rivian, the buzzy electric vehicle company backed by Ford and Amazon, delivered 909 vehicles to customers in the fourth quarter of 2021, the company said in its second earnings report since its historic IPO last year. The company says it has delivered a total of 920 vehicles in 2021.
Rivian reported a negative gross profit of $383 million over the last three months and $465 million over the course of the whole year. Revenues were $55 million in 2021, and the company said it recorded a net loss of $2.5 billion in the fourth quarter.
With supply chains constrained and the global chip shortage continuing to batter the auto industry, Rivian is maintaining a modest production schedule for 2022. In a shareholder letter, the company said it expects to produce only 25,000 vehicle over the course of the year, including its R1T truck and its electric delivery vans for Amazon.
We believe that throughout 2022, the supply chain will be a fundamental limiting factor in our total output for the Normal Factory and that our manufacturing equipment and processes would have the ability to produce enough vehicles to deliver over 50,000 vehicles across our R1 and [Rivian Commercial Van] platforms in 2022 if we were not constrained by our supply chain. Our confidence comes from the demonstrated performance of our processes and equipment which is in line with our expectations. Despite this, due to the supply chain constraints currently visible to us, we believe we will have sufficient parts and materials to produce 25,000 vehicles across our R1 and RCV platforms in 2022
The earnings report follows a rough week for Rivian, which had to walk back a planned price increase for its electric R1T truck and R1S SUV after a customer backlash. People who put down $1,000 to reserve one of the vehicles were incensed upon learning the original price quote had gone up by as much as $20,000. After an uproar, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe issued a public apology. Meanwhile, the company’s share price fell over 25 percent.
It was a noticeable drop, given the company’s high-flying status over the past six months. Rivian’s IPO helped raise close to $14 billion, and despite only shipping a small handful of trucks since production started, the company’s stock market value was nearly double that of Ford’s.
Rivian’s ability to make vehicles at scale is still unproven; it has only just started making and delivering the R1T and is still preparing its R1S SUV and an electric delivery van for mass production. Though Rivian is still worth about $55 billion, its stock has fallen by nearly two-thirds from its peak and is well below its IPO price.
Rivian started shipping the R1T late last year, earning the distinction of being the first company to deliver an electric truck to customers. Most of the initial deliveries were to employees, though a few have gone to some actual customers. The rest of the auto industry is still scrambling to get its own plug-in pickup trucks into production. (GMC also started initial deliveries of the Hummer EV late last year.)
Rivian is also collaborating with Amazon on an electric delivery van. The e-commerce giant said it would order up to 100,000 vans through 2024, part of the effort to decarbonize its logistics fleet. Amazon recently confirmed it owns some 20 percent of Rivian after participating in multiple funding rounds before the IPO.
Rivian isn’t the only EV newcomer to feel growing pains. Lucid Motors slashed its production expectations to 12,000-14,000 vehicles from the original prediction of 20,000 vehicles.
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