Earlier this morning Rivian confirmed reports that Amazon was interested in acquiring a minor stake in the company, and they’ve done so, along with several other investors.
The electric startup recently debuted the R1T and R1S pickup and SUV with an initial on sale date of late 2020. Rumors about General Motors being interested in a similar arrangement surfaced this week as well, but the automaker was not involved with the latest round of investment agreements. At this point the online retailer isn’t committing strongly to Rivian. Is the company looking for a solid platform that will help them build an all-electric vehicle fleet, or something else? Time will tell, but for now it looks like Rivian has impressed at least one major corporation.
I’m glad to see this happen, since Rivian bought the former DSM/Mitsubishi plant in Normal IL. Instead of it getting torn down, or turned into warehouse. Hope it works out for the workers and community.
Rivian had their pickup on display recently at the X Games in Aspen, Colorado. I happened to be there on a ski trip with some friends, and talked to one of the Rivian engineers at the display, and he said their plan is to hire as many former Mitsu factory workers as they can. We’ll see, eh…?
BTW, the truck looks fantastic, even better in person than in photos. It’s about the size of the current crop of mid-size pickups. Really neat looking truck.
America’s richest retailer investing in the car business… it’s as if Sears had invested in Kaiser. Special pricing for Prime members?
Seriously, this new round of investment is another strong step for Rivian, who’s on-track for a successful launch next year.
That front end looks like Little Orphan Annie.
Funny, I had to look her up, it’s been so long since seeing her. But you’re right!
Actually another character might be closer to the target market. 😉
That’s a neat truck. But with major alarm bells going off around Tesla right now, along with the traditional manufacturers announcing they have their own electric vehicles under development, I wonder how wise of an investment it is. A lot of hurdles to overcome.
There is a market for trucks like this. But whether that market is big enough to successfully launch a new manufacturer is another thing altogether.
And what exactly are these “major alarm bells going off round Tesla right now”? There’s been folks ringing alarm bells and proclaiming the imminent death of Tesla since 2009. What else is new? I guess it depends who you’re listening too. I don’t hear any major new alarm bells.
There’s a well-funded industry out there whose sole job it is to ring new alarm bells about Tesla every day. Ask me how I know.
Layoffs
Top executives constantly leaving
Unable to meet any goals, and by large margins
Overvalued stock
$920 million of debt due next month
And the biggest one: Model 3 US sales have fallen off a cliff, down 74% last month.
Layoffs? Not the first time. Folks should see that as good news, because Musk has said Tesla needs to be profitable going forward.
Execs have been leaving for years. Nothing new. Most of them had accumulated millions in stock options, so they cashed in and retired or went elsewhere. There’s always others happy to take their place.
Unable to meet any goals: That’s been their MO since day one. But Musk said Tesla would be profitable in Q3 and Q4 , and he delivered on that. That’s the most important one. Tesla nay-sayers always said they would never be profitable.
Overvalued stock: That’s purely the opinion of some, and not others. There’s absolutely no way for anyone to say what a stock is worth, which is of course why we have stock markets. The market prices the stock.
$930M debt due in March: Tesla has plenty of cash to pay it in full, and that’s been acknowledged and accepted by everyone except you, apparently. Old news.
Of course M3 sales are down. First of all, Tesla always has their highest deliveries in the third month of any quarter, so the drop from december to January was utterly predictable. And Tesla is shipping a big percentage of their production overseas now, to the EU and China, so yes, US sales are very much going to be lower for the time being.
I’m not a Tesla fanboi, but I do get sick of the broken record screeching “Tesla is about to crash”. I’ve been hearing it for a decade. It gets very old.
I have no idea how their long term future will play out. But I try to watch it objectively. It’s a fascinating story.
Got something genuinely new, relevant and interesting about Tesla?
I had a long reply written out but deleted it before posting.
If you are truly sick of hearing it, well, then perhaps you should not have asked me to expand on it and then engage in a lengthy, berating retort. We can keep discussing it if you’d like, but if you don’t enjoy it then we should probably just agree to disagree and drop it.
If you are truly sick of hearing it, well, then perhaps you should not have asked me to expand on it and then engage in a lengthy, berating retort.
This is the last time I’m willing to reply to Tesla FUD comments. They are tedious, boring and unwelcome. if you had something intelligent or interesting to discuss about Tesla, I’d be willing to engage. But this is just the same old same old (FUD). In the future, I’m going to delete Tesla FUD comments because they fall in the same category as political comments. They just regurgitate the same view/opinion over and over, and do not have any content or take that’s truly interesting or reflects some new perspective or insight.
Yes, drop it. or I will drop them.
Let me add one more thing, Phil: As I keep up with all the daily news on Tesla and EVs in general, I’m all-too aware of the many shortcomings of Tesla, and their many mistakes/questionable decisions.
But there’s nothing new at the moment that materially changes the situation as it is and has been. Tesla constantly faces a lot of headwinds. I’m not invested in the outcome one way or another.
Just because information is not new does not make it irrelevant.
There is more than one way to interpret what’s going on there and only time will tell which interpretation is correct. Normally I would fully explain my thoughts before dropping it, but despite the insults to my intelligence I have too much respect for this site and your work here Paul to push it. Additionally, upon reflection I can see why you feel Tesla is becoming like politics. So…have a good weekend.
FYI, I was working up a reply myself, and found everything Paul just cited in Motor Trend.
Having been in a couple of tech startups (that didn’t make it) myself, I can tell you any company would kill for numbers like Tesla has pulled off. At age 15, Tesla is the longest-lasting new American carmaker since Chrysler.
Um, how do you know?
Oops; I’m sworn to secrecy. Take my word for it, though.
It’s easy to Google up stories about the anti-Tesla “FUD factories” (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt), partly feeding on media sensation-seeking and partly fed by fossil fuel CEOs. I don’t want to drag it out to the CC commentariat, but if you’re interested here’s a good summary with links.
A company that sells Tesla accessories is claiming there’s an anti-Tesla conspiracy? According to green media outlets? I’m sure that’s totally unbiased.
They’re stating facts you can verify by following the links. Here’s one, another summary by CleanTechnica, which is a widely cited source of news on the clean technology business.
If you read the first article you’ll find it mostly discusses the pressures in the mainstream media business that lead them to go for the FUD. Good news just doesn’t seem to get as many clicks.
I won’t dispute that media is terrible today. Real journalism is truly dying. But CleanTechnica also has a vested interest in biased reporting. I have seen many stories from them and sites like them that talk nothing but rainbows and unicorns when it comes to EVs. Like in your link, where they completely gloss over Musk’s pedophile comments as insignificant, essentially giving him a license for inexcusable behavior just because most of his behavior is OK.
I think the truth, as always, lies somewhere in between the two sides.
Just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean it is “biased.”
Getting back to Rivian, ever heard of RJ Scaringe? Probably not. He’s Rivian’s founder and CEO. Seems to be a pretty calm, non-flamboyant guy. He has a Twitter feed @rjscaringe that’s positive and excited about Rivian and its people. RJ has a solid engineering and business background (MIT PhD) and appears to have built a solid team. I don’t think he’ll be quite the lightning rod that Musk has been.
Rivian’s been working away in Michigan and Illinois, not seeking publicity until they have something real to show. They’ve been finding investment, as in today’s news, and they’re building towards their goal. Inevitably their eventual success would be met with FUD as well, but maybe not so much as EVs become mainstream.
I’m looking forward to seeing what Rivian and others can achieve. It’ll be a relief to see big pickups and SUVs on the road with a carbon footprint that I can feel good about. Greens like me don’t necessarily object to everyone driving big trucks, just what comes out the back.
The right wing propaganda machine is programmed to hate Tesla. Of course they are going to hate it. They don’t want folks putting a solar array on their roof to charge their car. They want all the sheep to keep filling up with expensive, difficult to make and dirty gasoline.
Tesla is not going anywhere no matter how much old men pine for a time when men were men and sheep were nervous.
I hope Rivian makes it. I think it’s a great thing they’re doing!
I think the ultimate issue with Tesla will be cost-to-build their platforms vs. the major manufacturers.
Apparently they’re finally making money, but what happens when Detroit, Tokyo, Germany, etc, are on board and EVs are in the mainstream? Will Tesla become the new Studebaker or Hudson?
To Rivian, I’d like to see GM get involved. To develop a viable fullsize pickup/SUV would be a potential winner. They don’t want to give someone else the headstart.
Amazon – Sears Allstate anology? Interesting angle. Will history repeat or has the market changed enough…
I have been a businessman all my life and I will add this:
When you are in business, the competition really doesn’t matter much. It is up to you to produce the best product you can for the budget you have. Then you have to sell it with all your heart and soul.
If you do this, your product will sell and your future will take care of itself.
You know, I’ve been assuming that Tesla would become the new Studebaker or Douglas Aircraft or Hudson (or AMC, and get acquired by a bigger fish) but it hasn’t happened yet. And every year Tesla not only grows volume but puts down roots with infrastructure and installed base (customers). As an “older “ guy I tend think of tech companies as having short half-lives, and obviously many do, but Apple has been around over 40 years now. That’s like Packard after their peak, and Apple is still doing OK.
As for Rivian, as a truck guy I think it’s very well done. I wish them luck and if they need GM or Amazon money, that’s no shame.
Rivian’s “skateboard” chassis looks fairly sturdy, but I wonder how it will hold up when a snowplow is hung off the front. Which gives me an idea – they could offer an auxiliary battery pack that fits in the bed for plowing all night in cold weather. Extra power and added weight for traction. Will need a big capacity charger though.
They WILL accommodate a plow, right?