Rivian stock falls more than 12% after EV maker loses more than $2 billion, trims production targets

Rivian
RIVN,
-6.35%
said late Thursday it lost $2.46 billion, or $4.83 a share, in the quarter, compared with a loss of $353 million, or $3.50 a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted for one-time items, Rivian lost $2.43 a share.

Revenue reached $54 million, thanks to the sale of 909 vehicles in the quarter, from no revenue a year ago, the company said. For full-year 2021, revenue reached $55 million on sales of 920 vehicles, Rivian said.

FactSet consensus called for a loss of $1.88 a share on sales of $60.5 million.

“Not surprisingly our highest priority for the remainder of 2022 is ramping production,” Chief Executive RJ Scaringe told investors in a call after the results.

Rivian would have the ability to deliver more than 50,000 of its electric pickup trucks and SUVs, he said. Thanks to the disruptions, however, it set a goal of delivering 25,000.

Scaringe said that he and other top Rivian executives start every day “thinking about which suppliers we need to go speak to and push harder on to make sure they’re ramping as fast as the rest of our production line.”

The CEO twice directed similar remarks to suppliers that could be listening in the call.

The company also guided for 2022 capital expenditures around $2.6 billion, mostly driven by additional investments in its Normal, Ill., factory to expand the plant’s capacity to 200,000 units annually.

Rivian said the plant is “starting to ramp nicely despite the quarter getting off to a slow start and persistent supply-chain constraints.”

Beyond the “significant supply-chain limitations,” Rivian said its headwinds in the quarter included a planned 10-day factory shutdown, a spike in COVID-19 cases among its workers and severe winter weather in Illinois.

Costs have also increased. Chief Financial Officer Claire McDonough said that thanks to inflation and the supply-chain snags, Rivian paid more for its materials and also paid more to expedite their shipping.

Rivian shares fell more than 12% in the extended session Thursday, after ending the regular trading day 6.4% lower. The stock has lost more than 60% this year, compared with loss of around 11% for the S&P 500 index
SPX,
-0.43%.

The company said Thursday it had about 83,000 preorders in the U.S. and Canada for its electric pickups and SUVs.

Scaringe sidestepped a question about how many electric last-mile vans had already been delivered to Amazon.com Inc.
AMZN,
+5.41%,
a major Rivian backer. A “number” of the vans have been deployed as part of pilot tests, but there will be no “significant scale” until the second quarter, he said.