Rivian Automotive Inc. maintained its full-year car manufacturing goal and profit-making objective, however warned of a looming plant shutdown subsequent 12 months to organize for a brand new car launch.
The corporate stated Tuesday it expects to provide 57,000 EVs in 2024, unchanged from prior projections for this 12 months and about the identical quantity as in 2023. It had beforehand reaffirmed the manufacturing goal in July, a transfer that left buyers underwhelmed.
Rivian additionally saved its forecast for a full 12 months lack of $2.7 billion and capital spending on the order of $1.2 billion. The Irvine, California-based carmaker stated it’s on monitor to earn a “modest gross revenue” by the top of the 12 months, one thing that Chief Government Officer R.J. Scaringe has repeatedly promised buyers.
The uneventful monetary outlook follows a three-week shutdown in April of Rivian’s meeting traces for its R1 fashions at a manufacturing unit in Regular, Illinois, to retool and increase effectivity. Chief Monetary Officer Claire McDonough stated that plant shall be taken offline for a number of weeks in late 2025 for extra upgrades in preparation for the debut of Rivian’s upcoming R2 mannequin.
“We count on that our Regular facility won’t be producing automobiles for a couple of month as we combine new tools into the plant forward of our first half of 2026 R2 launch,” she informed analysts on a convention name.
Shares of Rivian fell 6.8% in postmarket buying and selling to $13.80 as of 6:38 p.m. in New York. The inventory closed common buying and selling Tuesday down 37% this 12 months.
VW Partnership
Earlier this 12 months, Rivian paused building of a brand new plant in Georgia and in June introduced a significant partnership cope with Volkswagen AG.
The money infusion of as a lot as $5 billion from VW is a welcome reprieve for the American firm, which misplaced about $32,705 per car constructed within the second quarter, down from roughly a lack of $39,000 the earlier quarter. The German automaker’s preliminary $1 billion funding has eased issues Rivian may run out of money earlier than it may debut its newest fashions.
CEO Scaringe informed analysts on the decision that Rivian’s suppliers are excited concerning the prospect of probably leveraging the connection by increasing into VW’s product traces.
“From a provider standpoint, we completely are already seeing among the tailwinds related to our Volkswagen JV and partnership,” he stated.
For the second quarter, Rivian posted an adjusted lack of $1.13 per share, higher than analysts’ expectations for a lack of $1.20 a share. Gross sales got here to $1.16 billion, beneath the consensus analyst estimate for $1.17 billion.
Income earned from the sale of regulatory credit totaled $17 million, in contrast with a “de minimis” haul within the first quarter.
The EV maker has stated second-quarter output got here to 9,612 automobiles with deliveries totaling 13,790 within the interval.
Rivian is one in all few pure-play electrical car makers within the US, and second solely to Tesla Inc. in EV output. However the firm has been combating manufacturing points and slowing shopper demand for totally electrical automobiles.
Rivian presently makes three fashions: A mid-sized pickup, a mid-sized SUV and a industrial van, the latter primarily for key shareholder Amazon.com Inc.
The producer is making an attempt to chop prices forward of the roll out of the R2, a smaller, extra reasonably priced, SUV. It expects to begin making the R2 within the first half of 2026 and has plans for next-generation R3 and R3X fashions thereafter.
