Rivian Automotive Inc. built more battery-electric vehicles last quarter than Wall Street had anticipated as the company works to ramp up production and overcome a string of supply-chain issues.
The company also reaffirmed its previous guidance that it’s on track to make 50,000 EVs this year, according to a statement Monday. It made just shy of 25,000 vehicles in 2022. Leaders of the Irvine, California-based manufacturer in March told employees internally that output of 62,000 this year was possible, Bloomberg has reported.
Rivian produced 13,992 vehicles and delivered 12,640 to customers in the three months ended June 30. Analysts had expected the company to make about 12,562, according to an average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The quarterly total — which includes figures for its two passenger vehicles and a commercial plug-in van for investor and customer Amazon.com Inc. — was up from the 9,395 it built in the first quarter.
Rivian is fighting to maintain its status as a leading contender among a pack of EV startups to challenge market leader Tesla Inc. Rivian grabbed the spotlight with a blockbuster market debut in 2021, but has struggled since with supply-chain headaches, lowered expectations and a severe drop in the company’s market value.
Its shares rose as much as 8% in premarket trading Monday in New York. The stock had declined 9.6% this year through Friday’s close after plunging more than 80% in 2022.
The company has been able to ease a supply-chain bottleneck by developing a two-motor powertrain in-house known as Enduro. The technology supplements a four-motor design made by Robert Bosch GMBH that has faced lingering backlogs. That has helped it boost output of its R1S electric SUV, which accounts for about 70% of its pre-orders.
Rivian said it will announce second-quarter financial results on Aug. 8.
