Electric vehicle startup Rivian Automotive Inc will build a $5 billion plant in Georgia, its second U.S. assembly plant, as it looks to expand production, the company said on Thursday.
In its first publicly reported quarterly results since the company went public last month, it has posted a third-quarter net loss of $1.2 billion. The company expects production to fall a few hundred vehicles short of its 2021 target of 1,200.
“Launching and ramping production of three different vehicles under a few months is an incredibly tough challenge,” said Chief Executive R.J. Scaringe.
Issues he mentioned include worldwide supply-chain constraints, the COVID-19 pandemic, a tight labor market, and short-term issues around building electric battery modules.
Scaringe added the company was focused on pulling ahead of the timeline for boosting the production of its vehicles.
The pickup was released in September and the SUV last week, and the company has delivered 386 of the 652 vehicles it has built.
Rivian said it prepares to ship the first vans to Amazon this month.
With a market value of nearly $93 billion, the company made its Nasdaq debut last month in the world’s biggest initial public offering of 2021. The company raised nearly $14 billion in the IPO to fund future growth on top of the $10.5 billion it had raised privately from such investors including Amazon.com Inc and Ford Motor. Amazon owns 20% of Rivian and Ford owns about 12%.
