Rivian recalls nearly all its electric trucks over safety concerns, denting its newly minted rep
Rare Rivian sighting on I-90… had to snap a pic. Rivian’s e-pickups look like something out of the future, but the Amazon-backed EV maker has built only 15.3K vehicles since starting production last fall. That’s partly why this news hit investors hard: on Friday, Rivian said it was recalling 12K vehicles to double-check that a fastener in the steering assembly was safely tightened. Rivian estimates just 1% of vehicles have the defect, and plans to complete the checks and repairs within 30 days.
- Bad news: Rivian stock plunged 7% yesterday and is down 69% this year. Since IPO’ing in November, Rivian has fallen short of production targets and disappointed on forecasts.
- Good news: Last week Rivian reported its best quarter yet with 7.3K EVs built from July to September and said it was on track to make 25K vehicles this year (as targeted).
Save a horse… drive an e-truck. Rivian became the first to bring e-pickups to customers’ driveways, but the competition’s heating up. In December GM’s Hummer EV rolled out, and customers began receiving Ford’s F-150 e-pickup in May. This month, Lordstown Motors said it has (slowly) started production of its Endurance e-truck. We’re still waiting on Tesla’s Cybertruck…
Reputation matters more than money… especially when competition is hot. The recall isn’t likely to make a dent in Rivian’s coffers: it had an impressive $15.5B in cash on hand as of last quarter (way more than most of its rivals). But the scale of this recall — plus the fact that Rivian said the fastener issue could, in rare instances, lead to a loss of steering control — has already dented its rep.