Californian EV manufacturer, Rivian, has posted a net loss totalling US$1.6 billion for the first quarter of this year, while reporting revenue figures of $95 million.
In spite of the less than desirable figures, Rivian says that it is on track to meet its annual production estimates of 25,000 deliveries with its Illinois and Californian factories scaling up production.
The problem that Rivian and effectively all other manufacturers currently face is the soaring prices of raw materials that electric vehicles are particularly vulnerable to, as well as supply chain disruptions.
This caused Rivian to slash its production forecast for this year back in March by a massive 50 per cent, with the company confirming problems in sourcing primarily semiconductors for its R1T ute and R1S SUV.
All up, Rivian produced 1227 vehicles for the first quarter of 2022, which was an increase of 318 units from the 909 deliveries it made in the previous quarter.
Markets remain relatively optimistic for Rivian, though, with its share price jumping 4 per cent to $21.42 thanks, in part, to the more than 90,000 pre-orders that Rivian says it has secured.
The company said in a letter to shareholders that “supply chain [disruptions] continue to be the bottleneck of our production”.
“We have been forced to stop production for longer periods than anticipated, resulting in approximately a quarter of the planned production time being lost due to supplier constraints.”
Rivian says that it still has finished the quarter with $17 billion in cash, which should be enough to jump-start production of a more affordable variant planned for production in Georgia. Rivian recently received $1.5 billion worth of incentives from the state of Georgia to build a $5 billion production line, which the company forecasts will be up and running some time in 2024.
