R1T Truck

Make
Rivian
Segment
Sports Car

Rivian has released better-than-expected Q1 business quarter production and delivery figures as the EV automaker says it's on track to reach a 50,000-unit production goal this year. In the first three months of 2023, a total of 9,395 combined examples of the R1T, R1S, and Amazon Prime exclusive delivery van (EDV) were manufactured, beating earlier expectations of 8,752 units.

In another sign the automaker is getting back on track following a difficult 2022 that was full of supply chain problems, a total of 7,946 vehicles have been delivered to customers so far this year.

Despite the production momentum, Rivian is still not out of the woods yet. Last month, Amazon decreased the number of vans it planned to purchase this year, resulting in Rivian's stock diving. So far this year, that stock price has dropped by around 15%.

Rivian wants to renegotiate the exclusive van deal with the retail giant so that it can find additional customers to help make up the production difference. The original deal called for 100,000 EDVs to be manufactured and delivered over the course of a decade. The EDVs began operations in Los Angeles in February 2021 and, to date, have delivered over 10 million packages.

Until something is agreed upon, Rivian is clearly moving full-speed ahead with production. In fact, the company's management reportedly told employees it might even be possible to increase production this year to 62,000 vehicles, assuming everything goes accordingly to plan. It's a challenging goal especially since Rivian only has one factory, located in Normal, Illinois. A new factory is currently being built in Georgia but it's not expected to come online until sometime in 2024. That means there's a lot of pressure at the sole facility right now.

Rivian says it plans to boost second-shift operations in Illinois in order to keep deliveries on schedule but, again, the situation could easily change; the supply chain crisis has improved but it's not over yet. While it's certainly good news Rivian's production is going well, another critical problem remains unresolved: cash. More specifically, Rivian is burning through it faster than it should and has lost money on every vehicle sold. Some key executives have also recently left the company and, earlier this year, Rivian was forced to lay off a good chunk of its workforce to help preserve its cash reserves.

Rivian has definitely come a long way in a fairly short amount of time. In 2021, for example, it produced a little over 1,000 vehicles. 2023 could prove to be a pivotal production year as the EV market continues to heat up with the likes of Ford (which recently lowered its Rivian stake to around 1%) and other legacy brands also increasing electrification efforts.