Rivian says it’s still on track to produce 25,000 vehicles despite production woes

Moreso than most automakers, Rivian has had a tricky 2022. Firstly of the yr, the corporate, blaming inflation and element shortages, raised the bottom worth of its quad-motor R1T pickup truck by a whopping $12,000. And whereas it went on to shortly backtrack, the choice led to a shareholder lawsuit. 

Regardless of these early woes, Rivian says it’s nonetheless on monitor to provide 25,000 autos in 2022. The corporate reiterated the prediction in a it shared on Wednesday. Rivian stated it constructed 4,401 , R1S SUVs and at its manufacturing facility in Regular, Illinois and delivered 4,467 autos throughout fiscal Q2.

“Provide chain and manufacturing are ramping,” Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe after the announcement. “We simply introduced manufacturing of 4,401 autos for Q2 bringing our cumulative complete since begin of manufacturing to 7,969 — holding us on monitor to succeed in our year-end targets.”

Whereas 4,401 autos is a modest tally, it’s an enchancment for Rivian. Within the first three months of the yr, the startup . Simply as noteworthy is that the corporate managed to scale manufacturing whereas dealing with lots of the similar points which have slowed its competitors. On Saturday, Tesla its first quarter-over-quarter manufacturing decline in two years. In Q2, the corporate noticed a 15 % drop in manufacturing quantity on account of ongoing components shortages and a number of COVID-19 shutdowns at its important Shanghai Gigafactory.

Growing manufacturing capability will likely be important to Rivian’s survival. Along with an roughly 71,000 automobile preorder backlog, the corporate has a order it wants to meet for minority . Late final yr, Rivian introduced it could construct a second manufacturing facility in , however that facility received’t be operational till someday 2024. Till then, the startup depends on its single manufacturing facility in Regular, which it says will finally produce 200,000 autos yearly.