7 takeaways from Rivian's IPO filing

TechCrunch ^ | October 1, 2021 | Kirsten Korosec, Alex Wilhelm

[SunkenCiv]

Rivian, the electric automaker backed by Amazon, Ford and a cornucopia of heavy-hitting institutional investors like T. Rowe Price Associates and Coatue, finally made its once-confidential IPO filing public.

The company, which started in 2009 as Mainstream Motors before adopting the Rivian name two years later, has exploded in terms of people, backers and partners in the past few years. Rivian operated in secret for years before it revealed prototypes of its all-electric R1T truck and R1S SUV at the LA Auto Show in late 2018. Since then, Rivian has raised about $11 billion ($10.5 billion of which was raised since 2019); expanded its Normal, Illinois, factory; hired thousands of employees; landed Amazon as a commercial customer; and, most recently, filed confidentially for an IPO.

Now, its S-1 is revealing more details about the company and its operations. According to its IPO filing, Rivian is officially based in Southern California, a detail that, believe or not, wasn't so clear a few months ago. The company's headquarters previously were listed as Plymouth, Michigan...

Media reports indicate that the company could pursue a valuation as high as $80 billion in its debut.

[SunkenCiv]

The futuristic R1T is an all-electric pickup truck from new American startup brand Rivian, and it promises 300 miles of driving range and lightning-quick acceleration. At 215.6 inches long, the crew-cab-only R1T splits the difference in size between mid-size pickups such as the Ford Ranger and full-size trucks such as the Ram 1500. The R1T is the first electric pickup truck to make it to production in what seems to be a burgeoning market, soon to include the Ford F-150 Lightning and the GMC Hummer EV SUT.

2022 Rivian R1T | Starting at $68,145

[SunkenCiv]

Rivian’s IPO filing is now public
Kirsten Korosec
October 1, 2021
https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/01/rivians-ipo-filing-is-now-public/

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1874178/000119312521289903/d157488ds1.htm#toc157488_15

[SunkenCiv]

Tesla aims to release $25,000 electric car in 2023, likely will not have a steering wheel
electrek | 09/02/2021 | Fred Lambert
Posted on 9/5/2021, 4:46:24 PM by thegagline
https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/3992186/posts

Rivian Announces 175,000-Mile Warranty for Upcoming R1S SUV, R1T Pickup
car and no driver | APR 1, 2021 | BY DREW DORIAN
Posted on 4/2/2021, 2:05:52 PM by RomanSoldier19
https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/3947357/posts

[MNJohnnie]

$70,000 for a pick up when an F-150 sells for $30,000?

No thanks

[SunkenCiv]

Chip shortages have wreaked havoc on the economy in the world. In the field of automobile production, the number is up to tens of billions of dollars. The severity of this situation has severely damaged Chinese companies and can lead to bankruptcy...

Leading Chinese proprietary-brand automakers managed to maintain or improve their gross profit margins in 2Q21 amid more flexible supply chain management to cope with microchip shortages and rising raw-material costs, but the margins of many Sino-foreign joint ventures deteriorated on lower capacity utilisation, says Fitch Ratings.

Nio delivered 5,880 vehicles in August, down from 7,931 cars in July. The company also cut its third-quarter delivery forecast on Wednesday from between 23,000 to 25,000 vehicles to between 22,500 to 23,500 units. U.S. listed shares of Nio were down 4.3% at $37.63 in premarket trading.

Nissan said it will be making 500,000 less vehicles due to the chip shortage. General Motors has had to interrupt some of its pickup truck production due to lack of semiconductor chips and has even been parking thousands of vehicles that are completed but still don’t have the needed chips.

Nissan said its annual operating loss in the year ended March 31 widened to 150.65 billion yen ($1.38 billion) from a 40 billion yen shortfall in the previous year.

Moreover, the net profit margins of many Sino-foreign JVs narrowed to less than 5% or were negative in 1H21. Net profit margins of GAC Toyota and GAC Honda improved by 2.8pp yoy to 14.0% and by 1.4pp to 8.6%, respectively, in 1H21. Beijing Benz's margin was stable in 1H21, but declined on a quarterly basis in 2Q21 due to chip-related product mix changes.

China and the world auto market was shaken by the lack of chips as Tesla gloats | October 4, 2021 | Tesla Fans

[SunkenCiv]

Rivian R1T Hands On & Walkaround
Nov 29, 2018
GottaBeMobile
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVOwB1-ws7c

Hands-on tour of the Rivian camp kitchen
Jul 19, 2019
TechCrunch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i4ezh8pneI

No Rivian For You: Here’s Why We’re NOT Reviewing The Rivian R1T!
Sep 23, 2021
TFLnow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-G-PFHtlso

No Rivian For You Part 2 Update: We’re OVERWHELMED By Your Support!
Premiered Sep 30, 2021
TFLnow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCj2j8cil_o

https://www.google.com/search?q=rivian+handson+youtube

[BiglyCommentary]

Dont like those headlights. Seems like they belong on a Yugo, not a truck.

[SunkenCiv]

They tried the slot-style lights horizontal instead of vertical, but the entire Asian community was up in arms.

[HonorInPa]

Not sure where you’re getting an F-150 for $30K. The starting price on the Ford website is $29K for a base model.

[al_c]

$70,000 for a pick up when an F-150 sells for $30,000?

Compare apples to apples ... find an equally equipped F-150 for 30k. Good luck. Or better yet, compare Rivian to the new F-150 Lightning.

[Tupelo]

I was wondering why Unicorn Piss stock was so high today.

[monkeyshine]

It’s practically guaranteed for the investors.
Tesla proved they could move enough units for scale.
Taxpayers are likely to subsidize the consumer purchase price of the cars.
And taxpayers are likely to throw trillions in other subsidies to support the electric grid.

No investments without risk, but, like Solyndra much of the risk can be pushed onto others. Fake capitalism here.

[MNJohnnie]

It s $29k and change while the electric is $69k and change so I just rounded both numbers up for ease of use

[monkeyshine]

Those are probably LED lights. I dunno for sure but lower power requirements on LED.

[MNJohnnie]

Compare apples to apples. The $70k is the starting price

[al_c]

I’ve been watching Long Way Up on AppleTV lately. Ewan McGregor and a motorcycle buddy of his are riding up from the tip of South America to Los Angeles ... on electric Harleys. Support vehicles are Rivian trucks. HD hadn’t yet perfected their electric bike and this show forced them to double the range. Also, Rivian only had two prototypes ... not even complete. Rivian finished out the two prototypes for them to use. Still a little rough around the edges on the interiors, but overall very nice trucks for what they are.

[al_c]

Okay ... so compare the $70k F150 to the Rivian.

[MNJohnnie]

The competition isn’t between electric and electric. The competition is between electric and the other options.

So that just an attempt to deflect and distract instead of address the inconvenient facts.

[Caipirabob]

I openly encourage every leftist to buy an electric off-road vehicle and take it for a lovely jaunt in our wilderness. Try our summer, perhaps? The sun will do wonders for their skin…

[BiglyCommentary]

Almost certainly but they can make them in any form factor. The whole front grill is very uninspired.