Elon Musk Fires At Tesla Rival Rivian: Recommend They Get First Plant Working Before Jumping On Second

Benzinga2021-08-12

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk has a piece of advice for Amazon.com and Ford-backed electric vehicle maker Rivian- learn from your mistakes before rushing to build a second plant.

What Happened: Rivian is reportedly investing at least $5 billion to build a second electric vehicle factory near Fort Worth, Texas. The manufacturing plant, codenamed “Project Terra,” will have an annual capacity of 200,000 electric vehicles and is expected to create at least 7,500 jobs by 2027.

The development spurred Musk to comment on Rivian’s efforts to build the second plant in the U.S. with a suggestion that Rivian should get its first factory “working” as it is “insanely” difficult to produce at a large scale at affordable unit cost.

Musk later agreed to a response to his earlier tweet that elaborated how most problems in a manufacturing plant are found out during production and not beforehand and it is not smart to scale up without learning from those mistakes.

Why It Matters: Rivian’s recent fundraise and expansion plans come just months after the electric vehicle makerdelayed the start of productionof its R1T electric pickups at its existing manufacturing facility in Normal, Illinois.

The second plant will help Rivian expand capacity and compete with Elon Musk-led Tesla, which has a relatively larger scale and is further expanding — currently building an electric vehicle factory in Austin with a target to begin production by the end of the year.

Rivian recentlysecured a fresh $2.5 billion fundingfrom existing investors such as Amazon, Ford and T. Rowe Price. The electric vehicle start-up said it has raised about $10.5 billion since 2019.

The California-based startup is valued at $27.6 billion and is reportedly planning to get a U.S. listing in September. The IPO timing is not certain and the listing could occur in late 2021 or even 2022, as per a Bloomberg report.

Price Action: Amazon.com shares closed 0.86% lower at $3,292.11 on Wednesday.

Disclaimer: Investing carries risk. This is not financial advice. The above content should not be regarded as an offer, recommendation, or solicitation on acquiring or disposing of any financial products, any associated discussions, comments, or posts by author or other users should not be considered as such either. It is solely for general information purpose only, which does not consider your own investment objectives, financial situations or needs. TTM assumes no responsibility or warranty for the accuracy and completeness of the information, investors should do their own research and may seek professional advice before investing.

Comments

  • Pixiestars
    2021-08-12
    Pixiestars
    Agree with Elon on this one. 
  • BlueDaisy
    2021-08-12
    BlueDaisy
    They are too eager to increase market share. Not a good thing
  • Min04
    2021-08-12
    Min04
    Pls help to like! Good day ahead!
  • Holla
    2021-08-12
    Holla
    Like my comment pls 
  • Lemb77
    2021-08-12
    Lemb77
    Pls like and comment
  • Pat07
    2021-08-12
    Pat07
    Yes!!!
Leave a comment
10