Rivian’s CEO RJ Scaringe shared ambitious plans to acquire 10% of the EV market over the next eight years. The new goal is based on ramping up production at Rivian’s Normal, Illinois plant, and the opening of the second plant in Georgia in a couple of years. Scaringe’s announcement comes at a moment when Rivian faces a backlash from investors.
Rivian was on everybody’s mind last year as the American startup started to deliver its first vehicles. Beyond beating Tesla with the first electric pickup truck to market, Rivian had promising prospects and a lot of orders for their vehicles. But that part was also Achile’s heel for Rivian, as people saw it impossible for the startup to deliver 100,000 electric vans to Amazon, its most important backer, and also fulfill thousands of orders for the R1T truck and R1S SUV.
Investors freaked out and the shares’ price tanked as Rivian entered a shadow, but the company’s CEO RJ Scaringe is confident that 2022 will be a very good year for them. During a Wolfe Research conference, he spoke with great confidence about the push to increase vehicle production.
“We're absolutely making progress,” Rivian’s CEO RJ Scaringe said, according to Reuters. “The plant is starting to ramp nicely.” Responding to a question about the company’s plans for 2030, Scaringe laid out the ambitious goal “to build out a portfolio ... to allow us to really work toward building a position of 10% market share within the EV space.”
Rivian has a long way to go to reach that target. The work at its Normal plant was stopped in January to make changes to the production lines that would allow it to boost output. Soon after that, Bloomberg revealed Rivian increased production to 200 vehicles per week, up from only 50. The Normal plant also has a dedicated line to manufacture the electric vans for Amazon.
Rivian’s hopes to reach meaningful production levels are tied to the second factory it builds in Georgia. Just like was the case with Tesla, the construction progress in Morgan County is hindered by protests from the local community. Rivian is investing $5 billion in an assembly plant that will employ 7,500 people to produce around 400,000 vehicles a year starting in 2024.
Rivian is also looking to manufacture its batteries in-house and is rumored to build a pilot line in South Korea. This comes after the current battery supplier, Samsung SDI, refused to build a production facility specifically for Rivian. This happened after the startup denied committing to a volume and also submitted “unacceptable” conditions.
Investors freaked out and the shares’ price tanked as Rivian entered a shadow, but the company’s CEO RJ Scaringe is confident that 2022 will be a very good year for them. During a Wolfe Research conference, he spoke with great confidence about the push to increase vehicle production.
“We're absolutely making progress,” Rivian’s CEO RJ Scaringe said, according to Reuters. “The plant is starting to ramp nicely.” Responding to a question about the company’s plans for 2030, Scaringe laid out the ambitious goal “to build out a portfolio ... to allow us to really work toward building a position of 10% market share within the EV space.”
Rivian has a long way to go to reach that target. The work at its Normal plant was stopped in January to make changes to the production lines that would allow it to boost output. Soon after that, Bloomberg revealed Rivian increased production to 200 vehicles per week, up from only 50. The Normal plant also has a dedicated line to manufacture the electric vans for Amazon.
Rivian’s hopes to reach meaningful production levels are tied to the second factory it builds in Georgia. Just like was the case with Tesla, the construction progress in Morgan County is hindered by protests from the local community. Rivian is investing $5 billion in an assembly plant that will employ 7,500 people to produce around 400,000 vehicles a year starting in 2024.
Rivian is also looking to manufacture its batteries in-house and is rumored to build a pilot line in South Korea. This comes after the current battery supplier, Samsung SDI, refused to build a production facility specifically for Rivian. This happened after the startup denied committing to a volume and also submitted “unacceptable” conditions.