Written by Cláudio Afonso | [email protected] | LinkedIn | X
The Irvine-headquartered EV manufacturer Rivian Automotive published on Tuesday its financial results from the first quarter of the year reporting a revenue of $1.20 billion, beating consensus estimates of $1.16 billion.
Rivian generated negative gross profit of $527 million for the first quarter of 2024, less $8 million when compared year over year.
Gross profit losses decreased primarily due to “the increased vehicle production and deliveries, reductions in materials costs, and higher average selling prices,” the company stated. Rivian reiterated its annual production guidance of 57,000 vehicles.
Rivian shares declined less than one percent on Tuesday and are trading 4 percent lower at $9.84 immediately after the earnings results.
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In the first quarter of the year, Rivian hosted over 28,000 demo drives, nearly doubling (91 percent) when compared to the previous quarter. The company attributes the growth to the launch of its R2, R3 and R3X models which caused an increased brand awareness over the last months.
RJ Scaringe, Rivian Founder and CEO said the first-quarter results “exceeded the outlook and set a strong foundation for the remainder of the year”.
The CEO added that the company is focused on “continued demand generation, delivering cost and plant efficiency improvements, advancing R2 development, and driving towards profitability”.
“The recently completed plant retooling upgrade in Normal, Illinois introduced new technologies and cost-focused material changes into the R1 vehicle platform. It also provides the opportunity to improve manufacturing processes that enable the R1 line to run at an approximately 30 percent higher line rate,” he added about the recent upgrade of the plant.
Regarding cost reductions, Scaringe said that the company “transitioned to a new zonal network architecture reducing the number of electronic control units in its vehicle by approximately 60 percent, taking substantial costs out of its vehicles”.
The company produced 13,980 vehicles at its manufacturing facility in Normal, Illinois and delivered 13,588 vehicles during the same period.
Earlier today, DigiTimes reported that Apple is “assessing the possibility of teaming up with a certain US EV startup, and Rivian is a very likely candidate”. The report was not confirmed by any of the parts.
Earlier this year, Apple scrapped its plans to launch an autonomous electric vehicle after more than a decade of development and a $10 billion investment, deeming the project unfeasible. However, the story might still have a new chapter.
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Last week, Rivian was granted a $827M incentive package from the State of Illinois allowing the expansion of its plant in Normal.
The company stated that the funds “will go towards expansion of the plant, improvements in public infrastructure and job training programs for Rivian’s workforce” as it prepares to start producing its midsized SUV R2.
Volvo Cars announced on Thursday that its Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Deputy CEO, Javier Varela was leaving the company with immediate effect. One day later, Rivian announced that Varela is joining as COO starting from August.
Varela succeeds Frank Klein as to oversee operations including procurement, manufacturing, logistics and quality as Rivian continues to optimise “operational efficiencies, including the production of R2”.
In mid April, EV reported exclusively that the company had started a new round of layoffs which were later on confirmed to Reuters with an impact of 1 percent of Rivian’s workforce.
Written by Cláudio Afonso | [email protected] | LinkedIn | X
