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Rivian continued to close the gap in losses, cut costs and ramp up production in the third quarter with results that beat Wall Street expectations and suggested a brighter future, including raising annual production guidance from 52,000 to 54,000 vehicles.
The EV maker reports this After markets closed on Tuesday, sales were $1.33 billion, a figure driven by the delivery of 15,564 vehicles and more than double the same period last year. The company also showed modest revenue growth of 1.5% quarter-over-quarter.
On the revenue front, the company reported a net loss of $1.37 billion in the third quarter, down 20% from the $1.72 billion in losses in the same period a year ago. On an adjusted basis, the company reported a net loss of $942 million, or $1.19 earnings per share.
Analysts polled by Yahoo Finance expected revenue of $1.31 billion and adjusted earnings per share of $1.33.
The company said “strong progress” in cutting costs led it to improve adjusted profit expectations for the year to a loss of $4 billion. While that’s still a huge number that’s far from breakeven or profitability, it should be noted that it’s down about $300 million since the beginning of the year. In the first quarter, Rivian had forecast an adjusted net loss of $4.3 billion and $2 billion in capital expenditures in 2023. Rivian said Tuesday it has also reduced its capital expenditures to $1.1 billion, largely due to a shift in the timing of spending.
“During the third quarter, we continued to see progress,” Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe said in a statement. “We produced 16,304 vehicles in the third quarter and continue to expand our Enduro powertrain. As a result, we are increasing our production guidance for the year to a total of 54,000 units. We have also further improved profitability per vehicle, introduced the new Max Pack variant with a range of up to 650 km and rolled out multiple over-the-air updates to improve the customer experience. We delivered our 10,000th EDV to Amazon in the third quarter and today we are opening sales of the Rivian Commercial Van to new customers. This is an important step forward in our mission as we want to help companies reduce their carbon emissions and make progress towards a carbon-neutral world.”
The company still has $9.1 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments.
Production progress
A year ago, Rivian was mired in supply chain problems and inefficiencies that drove up costs and crippled deliveries. But the company has made progress on several fronts, allowing it to ramp up production and continue to raise its forecasts for the year. Rivian raised its production forecast to 50,000 at the beginning of this year and has raised it twice since.
While that figure is more than double what it produced in 2022, it is still well below the annual capacity of the Normal, Illinois plant. Rivian has said the Illinois plant will be able to produce 150,000 electric vehicles annually when fully operational, with plans to increase that number to 200,000.
The story develops…