RJ Scaringe, CEO of U.S. electric vehicle manufacturer RIVIAN, announced that electric pickup trucks and SUVs equipped with high-capacity power batteries will be postponed to 2023.
According to Scarletch, the vast majority of the approximately 71,000 R1T pickup trucks and R1S SUV electric vehicle orders currently received in the United States and Canada are small-capacity battery versions that can last up to 505 kilometers (314 miles) on a single charge.
RIVIAN pasted the content of the email to Reddit, a popular American internet forum. In order to meet the maximum number of scheduled consumers, the company decided to prioritize the production of the "Adventure Package" version of the "Large" battery pack next year.
After the news broke, RIVIAN shares fell, falling 3.9% at the close of the day to close at $102.87.
At present, RIVIAN has been listed on the US stock market, and earlier this month, the company announced its first quarterly financial report after the listing. At that time, Scarletche also talked about some of the obstacles to the production of electric vehicles encountered by the company, mainly due to global supply chain bottlenecks, a new pandemic of the new crown virus, recruitment difficulties in the United States, and short-term problems related to power battery production.
To date, RIVIAN has produced a total of 652 electric vehicles, of which 386 have been delivered, including electric pickup trucks and electric SUVs.
Larger than the "Large" battery pack is reportedly larger than the "Max" battery pack, which can provide a range of 644 kilometers (400 miles) on a single charge. Of all RIVIAN orders, 20% purchased the Max battery pack model.
RIVIAN also revealed that early next year, the company will launch a new feature in the RIVIAN user account that will show the estimated delivery time of the scheduled order.