Rivian delays deliveries after electrifying Wall Street

Update (Dec. 29, 2021): About a month and a half after going public on Wall Street, all-electric carmaker Rivian Automotive announced Tuesday it will delay deliveries of its electric pickup truck and sports utility vehicle with big battery packs to 2023. Rivian Chief Executive RJ Scaringe said the majority of the roughly 71,000 preorders for Rivian’s R1T pickup truck and R1S SUV in the United States and Canada were for a version of the vehicles with a small battery pack option.

“In order to serve the largest number of preorder holders, we will be prioritizing building the Adventure Package with Large pack battery during the next year,” Scaringe said in a letter to Rivian customers, according to a Reddit post.

The small battery pack provides 314 miles of range on one charge. The larger battery pack, called the Max pack, is expected to give a mileage of 400 miles on a single charge.

Original Story (Nov. 11, 2021): All-electric carmaker Rivian Automotive went public on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday. The company quickly shot up 29% in value to $86 billion, eclipsing the value of carmaking juggernaut Ford. By opening bell Thursday, Rivian had climbed another 10% pushing its valuation over $90 billion. That surge propelled Rivian past General Motors as the second most valuable carmaker in the country.

Ford is one of Rivian’s high-profile backers, having invested a half-billion dollars into the company in 2019. The other is Amazon, which held a 20% stake in Rivian ahead of the initial public offering.

The sharp rise in value comes despite the face that Rivian has only made just over 150 vehicles so far. The company rolled out its first vehicle, the R1T electric truck, in September and plans to launch its electric SUV, the R1S, in December.

Rivian already has plans to make tens of thousands more. The electric carmaker says it already has 55,400 orders, which it doesn’t expect to complete until 2023. The company is also developing a delivery van for Amazon. Amazon has put an order in for 100,000 vehicles. That order isn’t expected to be completed until 2030.

Rivian’s goal this year is to produce 1,000 electric vehicles. For comparison sake, GM sold more than 2.5 million vehicles last year. Rather than focusing on the number of cars it has sold, investors are anticipating vast potential for Rivian with the appetite growing for electric vehicles.

“Rivian’s stock price is set by buyers who think that electric vehicles are taking over the world,” CNBC financial analyst Jim Cramer said.

Rivian’s soaring stock price pulled almost all companies in the EV sector higher Thursday. Lordstown Motors Corp. jumped 11%, Nikola Corp. rose 3%, Fisker Inc. more than 8% and China’s Nio Inc. rose 4%.

The initial success of Rivian shows investors are looking for the next Tesla. It’s interesting to note that when Tesla went public, it was only valued at $1.7 billion. Now, Elon Musk’s company is worth over $1 trillion.

Tesla did not see a jump in value Thursday, due in part to Musk selling about 4.5 million shares of his company’s stock after making a promise on Twitter.