Rivian electric truck reservations increasing despite price hikes and production delays
Company expects to build 25,000 vehicles in 2022
Rivian beats Tesla, Ford, GM to build first EV pickup
FoxNews.com automotive editor Gary Gastelu discusses the startup Rivian.
Rivian stock is rebounding Thursday morning following the news that reservations for its electric trucks have been increasing, despite recent price hikes and production issues.
Rivian has over 90,000 reservations for its R1T pickup and R1S SUV. (Rivian)
CEO RJ Scaringe reported on Rivian's first-quarter earnings call Wednesday that the company had received 10,000 new reservations in the U.S. and Canada since raising base prices by $12,000 and more across the lineup of R1T and R1S pickups and SUVs on March 1.
The average price for the additional vehicles reserved was $93,000 and Scaringe said it currently has a total of over 90,000 reservations.
The R1S SUV rides on the same platform as the pickup. (Rivian)
Rivian built 2,553 vehicles in the first quarter and approximately 5,000 since production began last year. It expects to produce 25,000 pickups and SUVs at its Normal, Illinois, factory during 2022, and that the number could be higher if supply chain issues ease. The facility has a capacity of 150,000 units annually.
The company reported a loss of $1.43 per share that just missed analysts' estimates. Rivian stock was trading above $25 on Thursday morning, down from an all-time high of $179.47 shortly after its IPO last year.
Ford invested $500 million in Rivian when it was a private company and originally planned to have it build a Lincoln model, but later abandoned the collaboration. (Ford)
Early investor Ford announced that it sold 8 million of the 102 million shares it owned in the company for $214 million after the lockup period expired on Monday.
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Scaringe also confirmed that the company's second factory being built near Atlanta, Georgia, will build a lower cost R2 lineup and have a production capacity of 200,000 vehicles annually when it opens in 2025, with plans to double that in the following years.