WionDrive News Desk 
Rivian, the electric truck maker, maintained its 2024 production forecast, which was significantly below the Wall Street expectations in the early days while the company was going through a multi month manufacturing interruption, recording a wider than expected first quarter loss at the end of its interruption.
Rivian’s stocks plunged 6% during the after-hours trade after the announcement prompting analysts to take a closer look at the subdued outlook at a time when high inflation is already affecting the demand for the company’s premium R1S SUVs and R1T pickups, besides swinging consumer sentiment in favor of hybrids across the market.
The firm’s decision to depone the production in the second quarter, the restarting just in the last month was justified by the upgrades aimed at long-term cost reduction. Rivian’s CEO, RJ Scaringe, shared, “We did not produce for a whole month this quarter. We have shifted from three shifts to two. It’s balanced by each of the lines now running faster.”
The production plan for Rivian for current year stands at 57,000 vehicles, whereas the market analysts were expected the figure to be 62,277. As a result of the factory retooling costs in the first quarter, the cost issues together with the supplier changes can negatively influence the company’s production continuity in the short-term.
Commentators, as Garret Nelson from the CFRA Research Company, noted that Rivian’s cautious approach could indicate some concerns about future sales and limits, in a way, the possibility of meeting higher production targets.
While a broader decrease in EV market, which results in shared price cut actions, is happening in general in the industry, Rivian is being cautious with discounting and is trying to introduce lower-priced variants with limited range. Hence, the car maker experienced a slide in the average selling price of the vehicles from USD 94,123 in the previous quarter to USD 88,607 in the first quarter.
In a move that seems strategically timed, the company revealed production plans for the R2 SUV, the more affordable model targeted at the wider market in the first half of 2026 at its existing Illinois facility. This decision is to be expected with USD 2 billion cost savings, in the long run.
This included the reduction of capital expenditure by USD 550 million to just USD 1. Around 2 billion announced, showing the planned efforts to avoid unnecessary spending. Rivian has already initiated to save money by renegotiating supplier contracts and shifting certain modules to internal production such as drive unit.
The revenue for quarter of the Rivian were above the analysts’ estimates, although its net loss was widened to USD 1, 45 times the size of the US economy. About USD 35 billion in the past quarter, partially due to the factory reequipment expense. The cash reserves of the firm fell to USD 5.98 billion from USD 7.86 billion.
