The share price of electric carmaker Rivian Automotive surged by more than 8% in after-hours trading Wednesday, after a 10% dip during the day's trading session. The recovery came despite Rivian reporting first-quarter earnings that missed analysts' estimates. Investor confidence in the company remained strong after the company said it was still on track to meet its 2022 production target of building 25,000 vehicles.
Rivian's stock has lost nearly 28% of its value after a post-IPO lockup period for insiders, and early investors expired on Sunday. On Monday, Ford Motor Company sold 8 million of its 102 million Rivian shares at an average price of $26.80 per share. The stock went public six months ago at a price of $106.75 a share.
For the first quarter, the company reported a loss of $1.43 per share or $1.59 billion, slightly lower than the $1.44 expected. Revenue for the period stood at $95 million, lower than the $130.5 million expected by Wall Street.
Rivian said that it currently has over 90,000 bookings for its R1-series truck and SUV, up from 83,000 in March. It claimed it had received roughly 10,000 additional bookings since raising rates in early March, with an average selling price of nearly $93,000.
Rivian said it might take some time to fulfill those most recent orders due to shortages of key crucial components, such as semiconductor chips. The company said it had lost roughly a quarter of its anticipated output since the end of March because of those issues.
Rivian has built around 5,000 cars since beginning production last fall, including R1T trucks, R1S SUVs, and the EDV 700, an electric delivery van for Amazon. CEO RJ Scaringe said a second, smaller Amazon van, the EDV 500, is presently in final testing. The company said when its Illinois facility is fully operational, it will be capable of producing up to 150,000 automobiles per year.
Supply chain bottlenecks and internal manufacturing challenges are reflected in the automaker's 2022 production plans. Rivian's full-year objective of 25,000 is half of what it said in its roadshow presentation to investors before its IPO in November.
Rivian said it has $17 billion in cash on hand as of March 31. It claims that it will be enough to pay its costs until the debut of its next model, the R2, a lower-cost car, in 2025. The vehicle will be built at a new facility in Georgia.
