Rivian Maintains ’22 Target, Preps Illinois Shift Addition

Aug. 12, 2022

A prominent analyst says ‘the ball is finally rolling’ for the EV manufacturer.

The leaders of electric vehicle maker Rivian Automotive Inc. are sticking to their production goals for 2022 and plan to soon add a second shift at their Illinois plant despite increasing their forecasted annual EBITDA loss by 15%.

Southern California-based Rivian topped revenue expectations in the second quarter, bringing in $364 million by delivering nearly 4,500 R1 SUVs and electric delivery vehicles. Chairman and CEO RJ Scaringe and CFO Claire McDonough said the company’s Q2 production was still hampered by supply chain challenges but that many of the company’s suppliers are ramping up production and are ready to help Rivian add that second shift at its Normal, Illinois, facility, which has an annual capacity of 150,000 units. The company’s goal remains to produce 25,000 vehicles in 2022—having been cut in half in March—after making nearly 7,000 in the first half.

“We’ve been very much emphasizing supplier readiness to support this and have worked very closely to look at any parts that we think are constrained or may be constrained,” Scaringe told analysts and investors on a conference call Aug. 11. “Robotics and automation controls, those items … have already been worked out through the running of the first shift so we expect the bring-on and ramp-up of the second shift to be … very rapid.”

Dragged down by supply chain challenges as well as rising input prices and several other spending increases as it scales up, Rivian’s net loss for the three months ended June 30 clocked in at more than $1.7 billion, nearly three times the loss from the prior-year period. Its adjusted EBITDA loss was $1.2 billion versus $489 million and McDonough said her team now is forecasting a full-year EBITDA loss of $5.45 billion versus its previous $4.75 billion estimate.

Despite that, Rivian’s results—and its adherence to production targets some other young EV manufacturers (such as Arrival and Lucid Group Inc.) have pruned of late—prompted an optimistic response from one prominent analyst, who also noted that the company’s reservations book grew nearly 10% to about 98,000 units.

“The ball is finally rolling,” said Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities. “We believe Rivian is in a great position to capture the massive influx of current and future EV demand.”

As part of their new financial forecast, Scaringe and McDonough have lowered Rivian’s planned capital spending to $2 billion from $2.6 billion. McDonough said the move is the result of “a more focused product road map” but doesn’t affect the timeline for the 200,000-unit capacity factory Rivian is building in Georgia.

Shares of Rivian (Ticker: RIVN) were down slightly around $38.90 in midday trading Aug. 12. They have lost nearly 40% of their value over the past six months, trimming the company’s market capitalization to about $34 billion.

About the Author

Geert De Lombaerde | Senior Editor

A native of Belgium, Geert De Lombaerde has been in business journalism since the mid-1990s and writes about public companies, markets and economic trends for Endeavor Business Media publications, focusing on IndustryWeek, FleetOwner, Oil & Gas Journal, T&D World and Healthcare Innovation. He also curates the twice-monthly Market Moves Strategy newsletter that showcases Endeavor stories on strategy, leadership and investment and contributes to other Market Moves newsletters.

With a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, he began his reporting career at the Business Courier in Cincinnati in 1997, initially covering retail and the courts before shifting to banking, insurance and investing. He later was managing editor and editor of the Nashville Business Journal before being named editor of the Nashville Post in early 2008. He led a team that helped grow the Post's online traffic more than fivefold before joining Endeavor in September 2021.