Rivian sticks to full-year production target and profit goal
Rivian Automotive Inc. maintained its full-year vehicle production target and profit-making goal, but warned of a looming plant shutdown next year to prepare for a new vehicle launch.
The company said Tuesday it expects to produce 57,000 EVs in 2024, unchanged from prior projections for this year and about the same volume as in 2023. It had previously reaffirmed the production target in July, a move that left investors underwhelmed.
Rivian also kept its forecast for a full year loss of $2.7 billion and capital spending on the order of $1.2 billion. The Irvine, California-based carmaker said it’s on track to earn a “modest gross profit” by the end of the year, something that Chief Executive Officer R.J. Scaringe has repeatedly promised investors.
The uneventful financial outlook follows a three-week shutdown in April of Rivian’s assembly lines for its R1 models at a factory in Normal, Illinois, to retool and boost efficiency. Chief Financial Officer Claire McDonough said that plant will be taken offline for several weeks in late 2025 for more upgrades in preparation for the debut of Rivian’s upcoming R2 model.
“We expect that our Normal facility will not be producing vehicles for more than one month as we integrate new equipment into the plant ahead of our first half of 2026 R2 launch,” she told analysts on a conference call.
Shares of Rivian fell 6.8% in postmarket trading to $13.80 as of 6:38 p.m. in New York. The stock closed regular trading Tuesday down 37% this year.
VW Partnership
Earlier this year, Rivian paused construction of a new plant in Georgia and in June announced a major partnership deal with Volkswagen AG.
The cash infusion of as much as $5 billion from VW is a welcome reprieve for the American company, which lost about $32,705 per vehicle built in the second quarter, down from roughly a loss of $39,000 the previous quarter. The German automaker’s initial $1 billion investment has eased concerns Rivian might run out of cash before it can debut its latest models.
CEO Scaringe told analysts on the call that Rivian’s suppliers are excited about the prospect of potentially leveraging the relationship by expanding into VW’s product lines.
“From a supplier point of view, we absolutely are already seeing some of the tailwinds associated with our Volkswagen JV and partnership,” he said.
For the second quarter, Rivian posted an adjusted loss of $1.13 per share, better than analysts’ expectations for a loss of $1.20 a share. Sales came to $1.16 billion, below the consensus analyst estimate for $1.17 billion.
Revenue earned from the sale of regulatory credits totaled $17 million, compared with a “de minimis” haul in the first quarter.
The EV maker has said second-quarter output came to 9,612 vehicles with deliveries totaling 13,790 in the period.
Rivian is one of few pure-play electric vehicle makers in the US, and second only to Tesla Inc. in EV output. But the company has been struggling with production issues and slowing consumer demand for fully electric vehicles.
Rivian currently makes three models: A mid-sized pickup, a mid-sized SUV and a commercial van, the latter primarily for key shareholder Amazon.com Inc.
The manufacturer is trying to cut costs ahead of the roll out of the R2, a smaller, more affordable, SUV. It expects to start making the R2 in the first half of 2026 and has plans for next-generation R3 and R3X models thereafter.
