This should thrill anxious buyers.
The last part of 2021 was a difficult time for Rivian. While production and delivery of the R1T all-electric pickup truck had finally gotten underway, total production count was below what the Amazon and Ford-backed company had initially promised. On top of that, Rivian's stock value began to drop, a far cry from the excitement surrounding its IPO in November. But that's all in the past. Not only has Rivian announced plans to build a second factory in the state of Georgia (to many locals' displeasure), but it seems R1T output is finally ramping up.
Per Bloomberg, production took a temporary break earlier this month at the Normal, Illinois factory so that various repairs and improvements in the assembly line could be completed. This has not been confirmed by Rivian but rather by anonymous inside sources.
Through last month, Rivian managed to build an average of just 50 R1Ts weekly, which clearly isn't enough. Issues surrounding pandemic outbreaks and associated supply chain issues prevented things from proceeding at a faster pace. Rivian has apparently learned lessons from that experience and applied them. Now that word has leaked regarding Rivian's production line improvements, its shares increased by as much as 14 percent mid-week.
This is definitely a sign of progress and Rivian will need to keep up the pace to ensure market confidence. Resolving supply chain bottlenecks and keeping factory workers healthy is essential for its upcoming models.
Supposedly, only a few examples of the R1S SUV were built over the past several weeks and Rivian intends to dramatically increase that number this year. On top of all of this, there are also the all-electric delivery vans for Amazon. Rivian is contractually obligated to deliver 10,000 units by the end of this year. By the end of the decade, it needs to complete 100,000 units. Seeing a young automaker like Rivian experience early production problems is somewhat expected.
There's an excellent chance Rivian will sort things out, just like Tesla did during the Elon Musk-dubbed "production hell" period of early Model 3 assembly. Today, Tesla is the most valuable automaker in the world and the Model 3 has become its best-seller worldwide.
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