Rivian has had a brilliant year, all things considered. That's not to say that 2021 has been smooth sailing - the electric automaker has been embroiled in a court battle with arch-nemesis Tesla, and it has lost a fair amount of money. But things have still been progressing as it aims to bring the Rivian R1T and R1S to market, something that Amazon's investment will help achieve. Speaking of Rivian's first vehicles, the automaker says that production is ramping up effectively enough that it predicts around 1,200 vehicles will be completed and 1,000 deliveries made before the end of the year.

The very first customer R1T was completed at the Normal, Illinois assembly line on September 14, and production has ramped up significantly since then. Through the end of October, Rivian built 180 R1T trucks and delivered 156 of them. Interestingly, most of these vehicles were delivered to Rivian employees. Production capacity for the pickup is still increasing, while 25 examples of the R1S SUV will begin production in December, with 15 of these expected to be delivered before year's end. Production of the brand's electric Amazon delivery van is also set to begin this year, with Rivian projecting the completion and delivery of 10 units by January.

This increased production capacity is sorely needed, as Rivian says that its preorder backlog will only be worked through towards the end of 2023. At the time of writing, the EV manufacturer had 55,400 preorders for its R1-badged truck and SUV for the US and Canada, representing a 14.5% increase from the 48,390 preorders it had accepted by the end of September. Still, the company will get better at this, with improvements to the Normal plant making it capable of producing 200,000 vehicles by 2023. Rivian expects that if all goes according to plan, it aims to be producing 150,000 vehicles per annum at the factory by early 2024. Meanwhile, we're still waiting to hear when Tesla's Cybertruck will be ready.