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The
Irvine, California-based startup said it was on track to produce
52,000 vehicles in 2023 - a target it raised in August from
50,000 vehicles as supply-chain bottlenecks eased.
The numbers from Rivian come amid concerns of softening demand
for electric vehicles in the U.S. due to higher borrowing costs,
which has prompted price cuts and discounts by rivals including
Tesla.
Rivian, which makes R1T pickup trucks and R1S SUVs, delivered
15,564 vehicles in the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with
Visible Alpha estimates of 14,740 vehicles and up 23% from the
second quarter.
Its shares, however, were trading marginally lower as some
investors, according to Needham & Co analyst Chris Pierce,
thought it was a smaller-than-expected beat on deliveries
compared with Rivian's performance in the first half.
The EV maker produced 16,304 vehicles at its facility in Normal,
Illinois, up from 13,992 in the second quarter. That means
Rivian has to make just more than 12,300 vehicles in the current
quarter to hit its full-year target.
Price cuts by Tesla to boost demand and responses from
competitors have pushed average EV retail prices down to $53,376
in July 2023, from a high of nearly $70,000 a year ago,
according to Cox Automotive.
Rivian has stayed away from cutting prices. Instead, it has been
cutting cost and moved to building in-house Enduro powertrains
to reduce its dependency on suppliers.
Despite a slowdown, there are positive signs of growth in the
U.S. EV industry, which has become one of the fastest-growing EV
markets, according to market research firm Canalys Research.
(Reporting by Abhirup Roy in San Francisco and Zaheer Kachwala
in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)
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