American shareholders and investors dream of electric. After Tesla, which shot up to over one trillion dollars in value (the stock sold 7% after confirming that Elon Musk would sell 10% of his shares following the survey conducted among his followers), today a another zero-emission start-up that has become the most important takeover bid of the year, the seventh in history. This is the Rivian, founded in 2009, but which only started production of its battery-powered pick-up last September. The company, which has over 9,000 employees and is headquartered in Irivine, California, has major investors. Namely Ford, which before the takeover held 5% of the capital, and Amazon, which controlled 20% and which is also a customer of Rivian to which it placed an order for 100,000 vehicles. The first 10,000 should be delivered in the course of 2022, while the supply of the others will take place by 2030.
In January, the valuation of the company founded by Robert JR Scaringe, who is its CEO, was 28 billion dollars (in August Bloomberg had estimated it at 80), while in fact it reached 76.4, approximately 66 billion euros, more than the 59 attributed to an established brand such as BMW, for example. Until a few days ago the titles were given between 72 and 74 dollars, but at the final placement they reached 78. Rivian has released a note in which he claims to have placed 153 million (18 million more than those announced last week) for a collection of 11.9 billion dollars (10.3).
Timing is one of the reasons for the great interest in Rivian and its R1T whose declared range varies between 370 and 640 kilometers depending on the capacity of the battery pack. The company effectively won the sprint for mass-market mass production of the first electric pickup. Although late – the first deliveries had been promised for 2020 – Rivian preceded Tesla in the segment which, on the American market, is strategic: the best-selling cars in the United States are pick-ups. For the expected Cybertruck of the established rival, the deadline is for the end of next year, with significant numbers reachable in the course of 2023 in the new Texan site near Austin. The dates would have been anticipated by Elon Musk to collaborators. Tesla, however, had also made it known that over 1.2 million people have decided to reserve a Cybertruck, thus guaranteeing the site years of work.
Via twitter, the number one of Rivian had released on September 14 the images of an R1T surrounded by the staff of the former Mitsubishi factory in Normal, Illinois, destined for customers. The first models are those of the Launch Edition. Production of the R1S SUV has also already begun, the electric SUV with a declared mileage of 509 kilometers. The first deliveries have been promised for the end of the year. Starting from January I will be the turn of the Adventure and Explore versions of both models.
Investors find Rivian very credible, which in July also managed to raise $ 2.5 billion for the construction of a second plant in the United States.
