Rivian has a tough year ahead – and the first quarter is off to a tepid start.
The EV startup announced on Tuesday that it built 13,980 vehicles and delivered 13,588 of them in the first quarter of 2024. Both of these figures are down from the fourth quarter of 2023, where it built 17,541 and shipped 13,972.
Rivian has signaled that it plans to build about the same number of electric vehicles as in 2023. So if the company can keep pace with 2023 numbers, it should hit the targets. Things won’t get any easier from here. Rivian plans to shut down its production lines for weeks in the second quarter so it can make upgrades that will help it lower the cost of manufacturing its electric vehicles — another critical challenge it must overcome if it hopes to remain a relevant player and to stay in the game long enough to bring the next-generation R2 EV to market in 2026.
Producing and selling vehicles, which includes the R1S SUV, the R1T pickup and two versions of an electric commercial truck, has never been the company’s only challenge. Reducing EV manufacturing costs is essential to profitability. The company reported in February that it lost about $43,000 on each vehicle sold in the final quarter of last year.
All this uncertainty comes at a time when many companies are struggling to live up to the high expectations raised by the boom in EV sales over the past two years.
Tesla reported its own very weak first-quarter sales on Tuesday. Ford has scaled back its flagship EV ambitions. In the startup world, Lucid Motors said in February that it plans to build only about 9,000 luxury sedans this year as it continues to try to build a market. Fisker has fallen flat on its face, selling only half of the 10,000 electric SUVs its conventional manufacturer built in 2023.
