The 2024 production targets of two new car making forces in the United States are far below market expectations.
On February 21st local time, Rivian Automotive, a new American automaker that was once known as Tesla's arch rival, released its Q4 2023 financial report. The financial report shows that Rivian achieved a revenue of 1.315 billion US dollars in the fourth quarter, almost doubling year-on-year, higher than analyst expectations; Its net loss also narrowed to $1.521 billion, compared to a net loss of $1.723 billion in the same period last year.
However, the startup's production outlook for 2024 was lower than market expectations, causing its stock price to plummet by over 17% after market hours.
According to financial report data, Rivian produced 17500 vehicles and delivered 14000 vehicles in the fourth quarter; The total production for the year 2023 was 57200 vehicles, with a delivery of 50100 vehicles.
Looking ahead to 2024, Rivian has set a production target that remains unchanged from last year, with an estimated production of 57000 vehicles in 2024, which is lower than analysts' expectations of approximately 65000 vehicles.
Rivian CEO RJ Scenario stated that the "severe macroeconomic situation", including high interest rates leading to rising car prices and weak demand for electric vehicles, is the underlying reason for the weak production outlook.
In addition, Rivian announced a 10% layoff to cope with the challenging electric vehicle market situation.
Rivian, supported by technology giant Amazon, has been burning money since its establishment. The company recently invested in building a new factory in Georgia, USA to increase production of R1S SUVs and R1T pickup trucks. However, for every car produced, the company loses thousands of dollars.
A user on X platform asked Tesla CEO Elon Musk about Rivian's opinion, and Musk responded, "Based on the current trajectory, they will go bankrupt within 6 quarters. Perhaps this trajectory will change, but so far it has not."
Lucid Group, another new American automaker that rivals Tesla, also released its fourth quarter results. Lucid stated that the net loss in the fourth quarter of 2023 increased from a loss of $473 million in the same period last year to $654 million; It is expected to produce 9000 cars this year, far below analyst expectations, with a production of 8428 cars last year.
Lucid's performance also disappointed investors, with its stock price dropping nearly 10% after the US stock market closed.
Wall Street is not optimistic about the entire US electric vehicle sector, represented by Tesla, mainly due to signs of weak demand for electric vehicles under high interest rate pressure. In addition, multiple countries are weakening or even canceling incentive measures for electric vehicles. Previously, Musk also warned that high interest rates have made it difficult for people to afford cars, and demand for electric vehicles is slowing down.
The expected production of Rivian remains unchanged from last year, which is undoubtedly another sign of a more severe situation in the North American electric vehicle industry. Rivian went public at the end of 2021, with a market value exceeding $100 billion, surpassing traditional automotive giants Ford and General Motors. However, since then, the company's stock price has fallen by 85%, with a drop of over 30% this year.