Known as the "Tesla killer", the American electric car manufacturer Rivian recently ran into trouble, because the sharp price increase of its electric vehicle products triggered a strong consumer protest, suffered a large number of cancellations while the stock price fell to a new low.
On the evening of March 1, local time, US President Biden said in his first State of the Union address address in the Capitol building that controlling prices is the current top priority and will urge lower the price of electric vehicles. However, on March 2, local time, the US electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian resolutely announced that due to the shortage of semiconductors, rising material costs and inflation, it decided to raise the price of pure electric pickup truck R1T and pure electric SUV R1S by 17% and 20% respectively. After the price increase, the R1T starts at $79,500, while the R1S starts at $84,500.
On the same day, Tesla CEO Musk said on Twitter that the negative gross margin of U.S. electric vehicle maker Rivian will be staggering. It also said Tesla has created more than 50,000 jobs for the United States in manufacturing electric vehicles, with a total investment of more than double that of GM and Ford combined.
This move immediately caused a strong protest from the owners, because the Price Increase of Rivian not only affected the consumers who booked the subsequent car, but even the previously determined car owners had to "make up the difference", so customers who were dissatisfied with the Price Increase of TheIvian commented on the official website and cancelled the order one after another.
Oh, my God! My configuration went from $96,000 to $117,000
This is ridiculous! My pricing is 77773 and now it's 93450 and I'm glad to have chosen the F150.
I knew the price would go up, but I couldn't accept it because my configuration was already over $100,000
In the face of the owner's accusations, Rivian had no choice but to announce once again that customers who booked before the price increase would maintain the original price, and customers who cancelled their orders after the price increase would be allowed to resume orders at the original price, time and configuration. R.J. Scaringe, Ceo of Rivian, issued a letter saying the price increases "undermine the trust That Rivian hopes to build with its customers" and that the company is grappling with rising pressures on parts and material costs, but that it is wrong to apply the price increases to existing orders. However, Rivian declined to say how many orders were canceled.
Rivian shares continued to reach new lows due to consumer dissatisfaction caused by price increases. From March 1 to 4, Rivian shares fell by 8.36%, 13.49%, 4.95% and 6.91% respectively. As of the close of trading on March 4, Rivian shares closed at $47.39 and had a total market capitalization of $42.7 billion, a record low.
According to the data, Rivian is an American manufacturer of pure electric vehicles, founded in 2009 and headquartered in Elvin, California. Founder RJ Scaringe graduated from Rensselaer Institute of Technology in the United States, because he was also a car fan, and eventually received a doctorate in mechanical engineering from MIT. After graduating in 2009, RJ Scaringe founded the Mainstream Motors automotive factory specializing in sports cars, renamed Mainstream Motors as Rivian in 2010, and moved from sports cars to pure electric pickup trucks. However, until 2018, Rivian launched a pure electric pickup R1T and pure electric SUV R1S, of which pure electric pickup R1T is widely optimistic about the market, because the United States is very fond of pickup trucks, so the market once thought that Rivian can compete with Tesla in the sky, which is also the origin of Rivian's reputation as "Tesla killer".
In addition, Amazon founder Bezos and Tesla CEO Musk are sworn enemies, perhaps seeing the development prospects of electric vehicles, but also can restrict Tesla's position, so Bezos invested in a number of companies in the automotive field in 2019, including Rivian, plus other institutions to reivian additional financing, Rivian in the US market heat also rose.
On November 1, 2021, Rivian was listed on the NASDAQ in the United States at an issue price of $78, rising to $119.46 during the session and closing at $100.73, with a total market capitalization of $85.9 billion. On the same day, founder RJ Scaringe revealed in an interview that Rivian must grow rapidly, reaching production of at least 1 million electric vehicles per year by 2030. Rivian's long-term plan is to build four assembly plants around the world, a second plant in the United States in addition to the existing plant in Normal, Illinois, and one plant in Europe and China.
Since then, Rivian's stock price has soared, from $100.73 on Nov. 1 to $172.01 on Nov. 16, and its market value rose at one point from $85.9 billion on Nov. 1 to $149.4 billion on Nov. 16. As of the close of trading on November 16, Rivian's market value was second only to Tesla's $1,059.2 billion and Toyota's $261.8 billion, surpassing Volkswagen, BMW, etc., becoming the third most valuable car company in the world.
However, for the soaring stock price of Rivian, Musk rationally offered advice: "I hope that Rivian can achieve mass production and positive cash flow, which is the real test that the company is facing." Of the hundreds of auto startups, Tesla is the only U.S. car company to achieve mass production and positive cash flow in the past 100 years. ”
Since November 16, Rivian's stock price has continued to pull back, and in addition to being related to the US market environment, Rivian's problems have also begun to erupt. On December 16, Rivian released its first post-IPO financial report: revenue of $1 million and net loss of $1.233 billion in the third quarter of 2021, as of December 15, a total of 652 vehicles were produced and 386 R1 series electric vehicles were delivered. After the earnings report, Rivian shares fell 5.33% on the day and fell 10.26% the next day. After entering 2022, Rivian's stock price is also basically in a state of decline. As of the previous session, Rivian shares closed at $47.39 and had a total market capitalization of $42.7 billion, a record low.
In fact, at this point in time when Rivian's stock price fell, both the US market and the Chinese market have lowered their expectations for new energy vehicles at the same time, making the stock prices of related car companies and raw material companies decline continuously, and Tesla, Weilai, Xiaopeng, BYD and NINGDE times have all fallen to varying degrees. For example, Nio's share price closed at $18.63 in the previous session, a new low since September 28, 2020, and its current total market value is $30.7 billion. Xiaopeng, for example, closed at HK$115.9 in the previous trading day, falling below the HK$165 issue price.
In fact, it is not only Rivian who is facing cost pressures, after entering 2022, a number of New Energy Vehicle Companies in China have announced price increases, which in addition to the impact of new energy subsidies, it is not unrelated to the rise in raw material prices and chip shortages. Earlier, Euler Automobile announced that Euler Black Cat and Euler White Cat stopped receiving orders, for the reason for the suspension, Euler Automobile CEO Dong Yudong said, "We have done the cost sharing to the extreme but still lose money, the rise in raw material prices plus subsidies, making black cats, white cats in a difficult situation." Dong Yudong also revealed, "Now for every car sold, it loses 10,000 yuan." ”
Under the influence of the decline of new energy subsidies and the sharp increase in the price of raw materials, it is expected that more new energy vehicles will announce an increase in the price of vehicles in the future. However, even if the price of many new energy products will increase, the current sales of new energy vehicles will continue to soar. According to retail data released by the Federation of Passenger Vehicles, domestic new energy passenger vehicles in January 2022 were 343,000 units, an increase of 129.2% year-on-year. On March 5, Xiao Yaqing, minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, also said in an interview that the sales of new energy vehicles in China in the first two months of this year were very good, more than doubled, and it is expected to reach the expected target this year, which may significantly exceed the expected target.
According to the latest global car company market value rankings, Tesla is still the world's first car company, ANDD fell to the fourth, less than Volkswagen. Rivian is currently ranked 11th in the world due to its continuous decline, and Weilai, Ideal and Xiaopeng have barely entered the top 20, but the ranking has fallen a lot compared with before.
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