Moreso than most automakers, Rivian has had a troublesome 2022. At the beginning of the yr, the corporate, blaming inflation and element shortages, raised the bottom worth of its quad-motor R1T pickup truck by a whopping $12,000. And whereas it went on to rapidly backtrack, the choice led to a shareholder lawsuit.
Despite these early woes, Rivian says it’s nonetheless on monitor to provide 25,000 automobiles in 2022. The firm reiterated the prediction in a press release it shared on Wednesday. Rivian mentioned it constructed 4,401 R1T vehicles, R1S SUVs and Amazon supply vans at its manufacturing facility in Normal, Illinois and delivered 4,467 automobiles throughout fiscal Q2.
“Supply chain and production are ramping,” Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe tweeted after the announcement. “We just announced production of 4,401 vehicles for Q2 bringing our cumulative total since start of production to 7,969 — keeping us on track to reach our year-end goals.”
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While 4,401 automobiles is a modest tally, it’s an enchancment for Rivian. In the primary three months of the yr, the startup constructed 2,553 automobiles. Just as noteworthy is that the corporate managed to scale manufacturing whereas dealing with lots of the identical points which have slowed its competitors. On Saturday, Tesla introduced its first quarter-over-quarter manufacturing decline in two years. In Q2, the corporate noticed a 15 % drop in manufacturing quantity as a result of ongoing components shortages and a number of COVID-19 shutdowns at its important Shanghai Gigafactory.
Increasing manufacturing capability shall be important to Rivian’s survival. In addition to an roughly 71,000 automobile preorder backlog, the corporate has a 100,000 van order it wants to meet for minority proprietor Amazon. Late final yr, Rivian introduced it could construct a second manufacturing facility in Georgia, however that facility gained’t be operational till someday 2024. Until then, the startup relies on its single manufacturing facility in Normal, which it says will ultimately produce 200,000 automobiles yearly.