Rivian stock prices have dropped to their lowest, falling roughly 92% from the initial trading of $130 in 2021.
Earlier this month, Rivian shares traded as low as $13.03, even as other electric vehicle brands such as Polestar and Tesla have made significant gains since the start of the year. The automaker has a current market cap of approximately $12.7 billion, 3.1 times its predicted sales total. The business has encountered multiple supply chain disruptions, and continues to suffer increasingly mounting operating losses. In 2022, the company missed its production target of 25,000 by 653 units, although this number still represents a year-over-year gain. For 2023, Rivian has publicly predicted it will manufacture a total of 50,000 new cars, with some reports claiming that internal projections 62,000.
In an attempt to meet these targets, the company is expected to relocate some of its employees. According to the Wall Street Journal, Rivian will move its manufacturing engineering team closer to its facilities in Illinois or its headquarters in California. While the company has yet to confirm this statement, a spokesperson told Reuters that “in terms of ramping production, it’s helpful to have the manufacturing and engineering teams closer to our facilities…”
It is true that Rivian has yet to make money in a sector which continues to see year-over-year growth. However, for most brands apart from Tesla, EV production has rarely been a profitable undertaking. Most automakers expect the technology will begin to pay off in 2025 or 2026. For now, the industry’s efforts are focusing on surviving until consumer adoption and infrastructure expansion reach sustainable rates.
