NORMAL, Ill. — Rivian Automotive’s modern factory in Central Illinois could pump out far more R1T pickups, R1S SUVs and Amazon delivery vans except for the shortage of a few key parts. But its slow-motion production ramp doesn’t threaten the EV startup’s bright future, CEO RJ Scaringe told Automotive News.
“There’s 168 hours in a week,” Scaringe said in an interview at the factory last week. “We’re using a very small fraction of those hours [for production]. So that’s by far our biggest focus as an organization — getting as many parts as we possibly can so we can be building more vehicles.”
Rivan estimates it will make about 25,000 vehicles this year, about half what it could produce with adequate parts supply. At full ramp, the factory has the capacity to build 150,000 vehicles a year.
“There’s a tremendous amount of focus on the short term,” Scaringe said at the former Mitsubishi plant that Rivian acquired and refurbished with modern equipment. “But I didn’t start Rivian only focused on next week.”
The number of parts holding up the production line is relatively small, Scaringe said. But there have been surprise complications, such as the war in Ukraine. Semiconductor chips are in short supply across the industry and a labor shortage in Mexico has reduced availability of wiring harnesses.
“Most of the components, whether it’s chips or hardware inside the vehicle, are not constrained — the vast majority,” the CEO said. “But the ones that are constrained, it’s for a reason. The world needs more of those.”
Rivian reported first-quarter production of 2,553 vehicles, but didn’t break them down by model. The automaker said in March it had 83,000 reservations for the R1T and R1S, in addition to Amazon’s initial order for 100,000 vans.
As of March 31, Rivian said it had made 3,568 vehicles since the factory opening in September.
The R1T starts at $68,575 with shipping, and can be pushed over $100,000 for higher trims with pricey accessories. The R1S starts at $73,575 with shipping.
