Rivian shutting down plants, hemorrhaging cash, and losing over $30k for each EV they sell. And yet, the media is simply riveted by them...
Bloomberg (8/7/24) reports: "As Tesla Inc. has become more difficult to stomach for a number of reasons, political and otherwise, Rivian Automotive Inc. has emerged as a viable alternative. The Irvine, California-based company has been in the news of late, most notably for plant shutdowns and disappointing quarterly losses, postponing plans to build an electric-vehicle plant in Georgia and a cash infusion from Volkswagen AG, which committed $5 billion in June to start a joint venture with the 15-year-old company. The investment spells salvation for Rivian, which loses about $32,705 per vehicle it sells. I drove a Rivian R1T truck in 2021. It was an exciting if overpriced new offering with a cool design and some kinks to work out. Introducing a pickup as its first production vehicle was a canny, though audacious and possibly naive, move to plunge into the highly profitable truck segment but also take on the likes of Ford Motor Co., which has owned the segment with its bestselling F-150 for four decades running. The R1S is the truck’s SUV counterpart that started deliveries in 2022. It’s aimed at wealthy families and upwardly mobile Patagonia wearers who require a large rig for their athletic and recreational activities (aka running errands and sitting in traffic, if we’re honest). If not also to enhance their do-gooder image. Rivian revealed the second generation of both the R1T and R1S in June. While the exterior design of its flagship vehicles remains largely unchanged, they now come with hundreds of hardware improvements, performance optimizations, a redesigned software system and new drive calibrations. Compared with their first-generation forebears, Rivian’s second-gen vehicles are well-improved."
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"As governor, Walz copied California’s green-at-all-costs energy policy, and he would do the same as VP. The result? Higher prices, more green mandates, and a less reliable electricity grid."
–The Empowerment Alliance
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