Rivian Copying Tesla To Increase Production Rates

Rivian is continuing to fine-tune its production capabilities by taking a page directly from Tesla's playbook: building a new electric drive unit, called Enduro, in-house instead of relying on an outside supplier. The EV startup has faced numerous production issues in recent months and that's a problem because it has a significantly large order bank to fill for the R1T and R1S. One key area where it was falling behind are those electric drive units, which were previously supplied by Bosch.

Bosch faced its own difficulties building enough of them to meet Rivian's quota due to a continued power semiconductor shortage, Automotive News reports. Rivian's solution was to get the Enduro drive unit's production rate increased beyond the figures needed for its commercial van for Amazon, called the EDV. Enduro consists of a two-motor design, meaning one motor at each axle, and requires fewer critical semiconductors per vehicle - and that's a huge factor in increasing production rates.

Rivian's stock price dropped by nearly 90% since R1T production got underway in 2021 because it continued to fail to meet production targets. This also led to Rivian slashing its workforce numbers twice in the past year. Enduro does not use the same semiconductor supplier as Bosch, and that makes a huge difference for Rivian's assembly line.

"One of the key mitigation tools that we have at our disposal is the introduction and the ramp of the Enduro drive unit this year, which unlocks a new secondary supply base of our power semiconductors within the plant," Rivian CFO Claire McDonough said earlier this month. "Our Enduro drive unit launched on time and is ramping according to schedule."

Rivian's Normal, Illinois factory will have enough capacity to begin installing the Enduro units in the R1T and R1S in this year.