The EV maker’s production surged in the last quarter, but it still came up a bit short.
Rivian- Rivian’s production plans for the past year fell short, with the automaker assembling 24,337 vehicles and delivering 20,332.
- The EV maker began delivering the Amazon EDV 700 and EDV 500 in July, with the electric van becoming Rivian’s third major model line.
- Rivian faced a number of supplier challenges in the first half of 2022, along with rising material costs, and reported a backlog of 114,000 orders in November, not counting the Amazon EDVs.
Rivian’s plans to build 25,000 electric vehicles in 2022 almost came to fruition, with the automaker barely missing that target with 24,337 units produced. The automaker managed to deliver 20,332 vehicles over the course of the year, pointing to some ongoing issues that aren’t strictly production-related.
Nevertheless, Rivian finished the year with plenty of momentum, producing 10,020 vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2022 while delivering 8,054. That’s a big increase over previous quarters, the first two of which saw under 5000 vehicles produced.
The EV maker faced numerous production challenges after kicking off assembly in late 2021, manufacturing just 2553 vehicles in the first quarter of 2022. Rivian blamed supply-chain issues, as well as the rising costs of raw materials at the start of the year, which affected nearly all automakers during that time.
The most important milestone for the company in the second half of 2022 was the start of its Amazon EDV deliveries—the vans have already become a common sight in some West Coast cities like Seattle. The EDV is built in two lengths, with the larger version offering 700 cubic feet of cargo space, while the smaller offers 500 cubic feet.
Rivian production accelerated sharply in the last quarter, but deliveries still lagged behind vehicles produced by a significant margin.
Rivian
Something else happened in 2022: Rivian may have gained early attention from EV buyers with its all-electric R1T pickup, which entered production over a year ago, but it now faces competition from the Ford F-150 Lightning, with the Chevrolet Silverado EV, GMC Sierra EV, and the Ram 1500 EV on the way. Rivian’s R1T, of course, is positioned and priced a bit north of most if not all of the current and planned pickup truck offerings from the Detroit three.
In November Rivian said it had a preorder backlog of over 114,000 vehicles for the R1T and R1S SUV, which will certainly take some time to whittle down, in addition to the 100,000 EVs the automaker has to produce for Amazon.
Rivian is hoping 2023 will finally be a breakout year for the brand as it works to increase production at its plant in Normal, Illinois.
“Our core focus remains on ramping production,” the company said in its Q3 letter to shareholders. “The demonstrated production rates within our Normal Factory continue to give us confidence in our systems, equipment, and team members’ ability to ramp our production lines. However, we believe that supply chain constraints will continue to be the limiting factor of our production.”
Jay Ramey Jay Ramey grew up around very strange European cars, and instead of seeking out something reliable and comfortable for his own personal use he has been drawn to the more adventurous side of the dependability spectrum.
Keyword: Here’s How Close Rivian Came to Its 2022 Targets