Rivian ( RIVN ) reported third-quarter revenue that missed the mark and a wider-than-expected loss as the pure adventure electric vehicle maker was weighed down by supplier parts issues. Even though the company is currently posting a bigger-than-expected loss for the year, the company is maintaining its one-year delivery forecast and still sees “small gross profit” coming into the fourth quarter.
For the quarter, Rivian reported revenue of $874 million versus the $980 million expected per Bloomberg consensus, down from the $1.34 billion it generated a year ago. The company reported an adjusted loss per share of $0.99 versus the expected loss of $0.92, and an adjusted EBITDA loss (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) of $757 million, compared with $657.5 million that desired.
Rivian shares were down nearly 2% in early trading Friday.
Last month Rivian said it was “experiencing production disruptions” due to a lack of shared components on its R1 and RCV (Rivian commercial van) platforms. The company said the impact of the supply shortage began in Q3 of this year and has become “more acute in recent weeks and continues.”
As a result of the disruption, Rivian announced today that it is revising its full-year adjusted EBITDA guidance to a loss of $2.82 billion to $2.87 billion, larger than the $2.7 billion loss previously forecast.
Rivian maintained annual production guidance of between 47,000 and 49,000 vehicles, down from the 57,000 it had previously expected.
The company reiterated its annual delivery outlook of low single-digit growth compared to a year ago, which it expects to be in the range of 50,500 to 52,000 vehicles.
Despite Q3 production and supply chain issues, Rivian said it expects to “reach modest gross profit” in the fourth quarter of this year.
“This quarter we made progress against our key goals and saw significant progress on the Gen 2 R1 cost structure due to the new technology being integrated into the vehicle and manufacturing process,” CEO RJ Scaringe said in a statement. the future and the midsize SUV, R2, which we believe will be the fundamental driver of Rivian’s development.
In terms of cash cushion, Rivian said it ended the second quarter with $7.85 billion in cash and cash equivalents.
Bank of America analyst John Murphy downgraded Rivian to ‘Neutral’ from ‘buy,’ and lowered his price target to $13 from $20, citing demand concerns and uncertainty coming from the new administration.
“While the positive gross margin is an important milestone, it will be supported by regulatory credits that may be at risk in the Trump Administration. Now we also expect only moderate growth in deliveries in 2025. This is partly because the demand environment looks more challenging. and production will be limited by RIVN downtime take in 2H25,” Murphy wrote in a note to investors Friday morning.
