(Bloomberg) -- Rivian Automotive Inc. is sticking with a full-year vehicle production target unchanged from last year, but its chief executive officer expects output to grow in 2025 even with a plant shutdown looming.
The company projects stable production of 57,000 electric vehicles in 2024 after key assembly lines at its factory went offline for three weeks earlier this year. That same plant will be shutdown for more than a month next year to prepare for the launch of a new vehicle. CEO R.J. Scaringe said that won’t prevent the automaker from boosting output over 2024 levels.
“We haven’t been overly specific around the exact numbers, but it will be another year of growth for us,” Scaringe said Wednesday in a Bloomberg Television interview.
He spoke a day after Rivian reaffirmed its forecast for a full year loss of $2.7 billion and capital spending on the order of $1.2 billion. The Irvine, California-based carmaker said it’s on track to earn a “modest gross profit” by the end of the year.
Rivian is one of few pure-play electric vehicle makers in the US, and second only to Tesla Inc. in EV output. But the company has been struggling with production issues and slowing consumer demand for fully electric vehicles.
Shares of Rivian fell 3.7% to $14.26 as of 9:57 a.m. in New York. The stock is down about 39% this year.
The upcoming shutdown at the carmaker’s Normal, Illinois, facility comes ahead of the debut of its R2 model, a compact SUV. Earlier this year, in addition to the April pause at Normal, Rivian suspended construction of a new plant in Georgia. Then in June, it announced a surprise partnership deal with Volkswagen AG.
The cash infusion of as much as $5 billion from VW is a welcome reprieve for the American company, which lost about $32,705 per vehicle built in the second quarter, down from roughly a loss of $39,000 the previous quarter. The German automaker’s initial $1 billion investment has eased concerns Rivian might run out of cash before it can debut its latest models.
CEO Scaringe told analysts on a conference call Tuesday that Rivian’s suppliers are excited about the prospect of potentially leveraging the relationship by expanding into VW’s product lines.
“From a supplier point of view, we absolutely are already seeing some of the tailwinds associated with our Volkswagen JV and partnership,” he said.
For the second quarter, Rivian posted an adjusted loss of $1.13 per share, better than analysts’ expectations for a loss of $1.20 a share. Sales came to $1.16 billion, below the consensus analyst estimate for $1.17 billion.
Revenue earned from the sale of regulatory credits totaled $17 million, compared with a “de minimis” haul in the first quarter.
The EV maker has said second-quarter output came to 9,612 vehicles with deliveries totaling 13,790 in the period. Rivian currently makes three models: A mid-sized pickup, a mid-sized SUV and a commercial van, the latter primarily for key shareholder Amazon.com Inc.
The manufacturer is trying to cut costs ahead of the roll out of the R2. It expects to start making the new vehicle in the first half of 2026, and has plans for next-generation R3 and R3X models thereafter.
--With assistance from Matthew Miller.
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