3 things to watch for on Rivian’s Q2 earnings day – TechCrunch

Rivian, an electric vehicle startup, went public in the largest IPO in U.S history last year. This is in contrast to the Tesla trend and other EV manufacturers during the first half.

Tesla, the world’s largest EV maker, reported two consecutive quarters of delivery declines stemming from delays in the supply chain and COVID-related lockdowns in Shanghai that stymied production its Gigafactory there.

Lucid has reduced its 2022 production forecast many times this year. Now Lucid is targeting 6,000-7,000 vehicles instead of its original plan of building 20,000. U.K.-based Arrival said Thursday’s announcement that it has slashed its 2022 target by reducing its number of vehicles from 400 to 600 to 20.

Rivian has set a goal of owning more than 10% of the global marketplace eventually. said it has ramped up production so far this year – a mix of the Rivian R1T pickup truck, R1S SUV and the EDV commercial electric vans it is making for Amazon – and reaffirmed its target to deliver 25,000 vehicles this year.

The Irvine-based manufacturer is facing the same financial challenges as the automotive industry. In July, it began laying off 900 employees – about 6% of its workforce – as part of a restructuring plan.

We’ll be tuning into Rivian’s second-quarter financial results after the market closes Thursday to see how it plans to navigate the industry’s headwinds, including ongoing supply chain issues and production hurdles.

TechCrunch and analysts will be keeping an eye on these things 

According to Yahoo Finance data, analysts believe that Rivian will generate Q2 2022 revenues of $337.52 millions, which is more than three times the $95 million it reported in the first quarter. Rivian did not begin generating revenue until Q3 2021.

Restructuring

We’ll be tuning in for news on Rivian’s layoffs, which are hitting every department, with one important exception — manufacturing operations at its Normal, Illinois factory.

“We need to be able to continue to grow and scale without additional financing in this macro environment,” CEO RJ Scaringe wrote in an internal email. “To achieve this, we have simplified our product roadmap and focused on where it is most impactful to deploy capital.”

Automaker could update analysts on Thursday’s quarterly conference call and provide details about its overall plan for reducing costs.

Amazon

Amazon, Rivian’s largest customer, began in July delivering packages using its EDV commercial electric vans.

Amazon reports that the initial rollout will include routes in Baltimore and Chicago as well as San Diego, Phoenix, San Diego and Seattle. It will also cover more than 100 cities by year’s end. The company plans to put more than 100,000 EV delivery vehicles on the road by 2030.

We’ll be listening Thursday for any guidance on Rivian’s plans to deliver more vans to Amazon, which owns an 18% stake in the company, as well as any initial findings Rivian has gleaned so far on the van’s performance, safety and durability in different climates and geographies.

Production

We’ll also be looking for an update on Rivian’s new factory near Atlanta, which received Georgia’s largest-ever $1.5 billion incentives package. The second factory will be completed this summer, and production will begin in 2024.

The automaker will continue to work on its R2 platform and the R1 platform underpinning its electric trucks and SUVs.

Rivian has said Its new lithium ironphosphate (LFP), battery pack, will be available in Amazon’s commercial vehicles later in the year. It will also serve as the standard architecture of R1T pickups or R1S SUVs beginning in 2023.