Rivian is quickly becoming one of the biggest names in the all-electric vehicle market. Its value is nowhere near that of Tesla but that's also the case for all other major OEMs. Despite a successful IPO last November, Rivian's biggest challenge has been production. In short, it's been experiencing repeated difficulties in ramping up the assembly line for the R1T and R1S. At the same time, it's pushing to get all-electric delivery vans on the road for its chief investor, Amazon. There's only so much the Normal, Illinois, factory can do at once but there are better times ahead.
Speaking this past week at a conference, Rivian CEO and founder R.J. Scaringe stated that his company is "making progress" at that facility and is still aiming for a ten percent EV market share by 2030.
"We're absolutely making progress," he said. "The plant is starting to ramp up nicely." The young CEO admitted the ongoing semiconductor chip shortage has been extremely difficult for production. Last year, it built a total of 1,015 vehicles, just missing its 1,200-vehicle goal because of a lack of chips. Scaringe confirmed the automaker has since managed to replace some chipsets with more attainable chipsets wherever possible in the vehicles. Unfortunately, the global chip shortage is expected to continue throughout the year. Perhaps the most significant sign of Rivian's future growth is the proposed new $5 billion factory outside of Atlanta, Georgia.
Despite some local opposition, the massive new facility is expected to receive final state government approval in the very near future. Since it's being built from scratch, it'll be several more years until its online. Until then, Rivian will have to make do with what it has. Start-up automakers always run into production problems at the early stage of their existence; just look at Tesla. We're still waiting to see the Cybertruck enter production. Rivian customers still waiting for delivery will need to continue being patient.
The carmaker is also making use of this time to ensure build quality is where it needs to be before production really kicks into high gear.