Rivian says it delivered nearly 1,000 electric trucks in 2021

Image: Rivian

In its second earnings report since its historic IPO last year, Rivian said that it delivered 905 vehicles to customers in the fourth quarter. The company says it has delivered over 900 vehicles.

Rivian brought in $55 million in revenue over the course of the year, and almost all of it came in the last three months. The company had a net loss of $4.5 billion for the year and a net loss of $2.5 billion in the fourth quarter.

Rivian is maintaining a modest production schedule for 2022, with supply chains constrained and the global chip shortage continuing to batter the auto industry. In a shareholder letter, the company said it expects to produce only 25,000 vehicles over the course of the year, including its R1T truck and electric delivery vans for Amazon. The company said it would be able to make 50,000 vehicles.

The automotive industry has never seen a more challenging supply chain environment, according to Rivian's CEO.

Rivian had to walk back a planned price increase for its electric R1T truck and R1S SUV after a customer backlash. The people who put down $1,000 to reserve a vehicle were incensed when they learned the price had gone up. After an uproar, Scaringe issued a public apology. The company's share price fell over 25 percent.

It was a noticeable drop, given the company's high-flying status over the past six months. Despite only shipping a small number of trucks since production started, the company's stock market value was nearly double that of Ford.

Rivian was sued this week by an investor who claimed that the company did not include pricing details in its IPO filing. The lawsuit calls for class-action status and a review by the Securities and Exchange Commission due to the timing of unprecedented price hikes on vehicle preorders.

The high demand for Rivian's electric trucks and SUVs has impressed investors. The lawsuit claims that demand was negatively affected by the price increase and subsequent reversal.

Rivian said in the earnings call that it saw an increase in the rate of cancellation after the price increase was made public, but that it came back after the company reversed itself.

Photo by Mitchell Clark / The Verge

This wasn't driven by mass cancellation, but rather the recognition that the brand we're building is the foundation of a platform upon which we're going to be selling millions of different vehicles per year.

Rivian has only just started making and delivering the R1T and is still preparing its R1S SUV and electric delivery van for mass production. Rivian's stock has fallen by two-thirds from its peak and is well below its IPO price.

Rivian was the first company to deliver an electric truck to customers when they started shipping the R1T late last year. Most of the initial deliveries went to employees. The rest of the auto industry is still trying to get its own plug-in pickup trucks into production. The Hummer EV was delivered by theGMC late last year.

Rivian is working with Amazon on an electric delivery van. The e-commerce giant said it would order up to 100,000 vans over the next four years. Amazon invested in multiple funding rounds before the IPO and now owns 20 percent of Rivian.

Rivian sold its first electric delivery van to Amazon in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to the shareholder letter. The production ramp for the van has gone smoother than for the R1T truck, the company said. The van won't start rolling out in greater quantities until the second quarter of 2022, according to Scaringe.

Rivian is not the only EV newcomer who is feeling growing pains. The original prediction of 20,000 vehicles was slashed to 12,000-14,000 vehicles. Rivian has suffered a loss of $117 billion in market value over the last four months. Analysts are decreasing their price targets by an average of 40 percent.

Umar Shakir has additional reporting.