There’s general agreement that the potential for big things is there when it comes to fledgling EV maker Rivian. It has managed two develop and start producing two vehicles, and both the R1T pickup and the R1S SUV had been generally well-received.
However, since production started last September, the sailing hasn’t been exactly smooth. The glitches have gone beyond just the expected hiccups new manufacturers can encounter, and a lot of them have to do with the ongoing supply-chain problems afflicting the industry.
At the beginning of 2022, Rivian projected it would assemble 50,000 vehicles by the end of the year. In March, it chopped that goal in half, to 25,000 units.
Yesterday, the company had some good news to share with its investors, namely that production increased significantly in Q2 compared with Q1. The pace is still slow, but it is going in the right direction.
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Specifically, Rivian produced 4,401 units in the second quarter of 2022, compared to 2,552 vehicles in the first quarter. In addition, the firm delivered 4,467 vehicles from April to June, almost four times more than in the period covering January to March. Strong demand and increased production helped the company achieve this result.
Rivian also said it is on track to meet its new production goal of 25,000 units for the year. That 72-percent increase in production between the first and second quarters is cause for optimism in that regard.
In the wake of the announcement, the firm's shares rose 11 percent to $29.82 on Wednesday, bringing some relief to a stock that has lost nearly three-quarters of its value since the beginning of the year.
Rivian's plant in Normal, Illinois, has a capacity of 150,000 units a year. The company would like to increase that to 200,000 by 2023. So there's plenty of room for growth.
Looking further off on the horizon, Rivian plans to open its second plant near Atlanta in 2025 as it expects demand for its vehicles to increase.