Last year, the popular new American auto manufacturer Rivian finally released its R1T electric truck. And while production has been extremely slow, we've learned that Rivian produced 2,553 EVs in Q1 of 2022 and delivered 1,227 to customers.
While only producing 2,500 vehicles in an entire quarter isn't a lot, creating a new EV company from the ground up isn't easy. Just ask Tesla. That said, the number puts the company on track to meet its revised production goals for 2022, which is 25,000 vehicles.
"These figures are in line with the company's expectations, and it believes it is well-positioned to deliver on the 25,000 annual production guidance provided during its fourth-quarter earnings call on March 10, 2022," the company said in a statement.
Yes, Rivian is on track to meet its production goals, but it's not enough. The company still has a massive list of over 80,000 pre-orders to fill. It'll take three years to deliver trucks to those who made a reservation at its current pace. Thankfully, we expect production to ramp up and reach higher output numbers soon.
To make matters worse, while Rivian did manage to deliver 1,227 vehicles to buyers, that's a mix of the R1T truck, the new R1S SUV, and its commercial EV vans for Amazon. So, we don't have a clear picture of how many trucks it's making each day.
Rivian isn't the only one struggling to manufacture electric trucks, either. Tesla delayed its Cybertruck until 2023, the GMC Hummer EV is sold out until 2024, and Ford's exciting F-150 Lightning probably won't see high production volumes either.
For what it's worth, Rivian expects its EV plant in Normal, Illinois, to produce around 150,000 EVs in 2023 and is undergoing expansions to reach 200k per year. So, things could look a lot better come this time next year.
via Electrek