Rivian has just announced its electric vehicle production and sales results for the second quarter of 2022.
During the period, the automaker produced 4,401 battery electric vehicles at its manufacturing facility in Normal, Illinois. Rivian made 72% more vehicles than it did in Q1. In a similar upbeat fashion, Sales amounted to 4,467.
It means that Q2 was better than the previous two quarters combined. This is a very good sign of a progressing ramp-up.
Rivian has not disclosed the production numbers for particular models in its lineup, only indicating the total values of the three Battery electric vehicles in its line up which are the R1T pickup, R1S SUV, and EDV 700 vans for Amazon.
This sums up for the year 2022, amounting to almost 7,000 electric vehicles produced by the automaker, and sold close to 5,700.
Considering the average rate achieved in Q2, Rivian already makes over 17,000 units annually.
The company said last year in its IPO roadshow that it is expected to build 50,000 vehicles in 2022. But it cut that guidance by half in March, saying that ongoing global supply-chain issues had “added a layer of complexity” to its efforts to ramp up production. The company said Wednesday it still expects to make 25,000 vehicles this year.
“These figures remain in line with the company’s expectations, and it believes it is on track to deliver on the 25,000 annual production guidance previously provided.”
Cumulatively, Rivian produced almost 8,000 BEVs and delivered over 6,600.
Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe thanked the team and suppliers for contributing to the result:
Rivian still has a long way to go, as the number of pre-orders for the R1T/R1S in the US and Canada exceeded 90,000 as of May 9, 2020, plus 100,000 vans for Amazon (including 10,000 originally expected in 2022).
The production volume must continue to increase towards much higher levels to catch up with demand.
Rivian has the advantage of being first on the market with an all-electric pickup, and a unique quad motor platform for pickup/SUVs, but the competitors are coming. Most recently, Ford announced 1,837 Ford F-150 Lightning pickup sales in June, saying that it was the #1 electric pickup for the month.
This is good news for shareholders as the upbeat figures sent Rivian’s shares nearly 13% higher, providing some relief to a stock that has lost almost three-fourths of its value in this year’s equities selloff.
The Illinois factory has an annual capacity of 150,000 vehicles and the company has said it intends to increase that to 200,000 by 2023.
Rivian also plans on opening its second plant near Atlanta in Georgia in 2025 as it expects demand for its vehicles to grow.
