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I looked in on some promising EV startups and found that they have had some setbacks...
UK-headquarted Arrival, who are primarily in the business of electric trucks and vans, recently laid of half its workforce. I thought these guys were very promising from the engineering and manufacturing perspective, with their scalable platform architecture, simplified manufacture of composite bodies in microfactories. Not long ago they were riding high, inking deals and opening new offices and starting in on production plants for buses, vans and more, in the UK and the USA and evaluating sites all over. Now, they've obviously run into some headwinds, and their stock is in the basement, and they've warned they may run out of cash within a year.
US-based Aptera, who have been developing the quirky, futuristic looking, ultra-efficient 3-wheeler, may be running out of juice financially, even as they are on the cusp of product rollout. It was reported that they were showing off their gamma development edition of the vehicle in Switzerland at an investment conference. They don't actually need that much money, reportedly just $50M to make it into production, and they have a bunch of preorders, plus some experienced industry partners and supporters, but... it's not clear if they will make it over the finish line.
Rivian, which had big financial backing from Amazon, Ford, and many other investors has made it into production with their R1T truck - to universally enthusiastic acclaim from reviewers. You'd think they'd be all set. But they've been having all kinds of manufacturing problems with the R1T and product delivery, and hence revenue, have been slow. Ford recently sold their stake in Rivian, but Amazon has stuck by them. Things are said to be improving slowly with the R1T manufacturing, and they have delivered 20,000 R1Ts in 2022, but more progress is needed. Rivian has also developed a bespoke delivery van for Amazon that is also said to be an outstanding product. They've delivered over 1,000 vans to Amazon so far, but they have an order for 100,000. On the positive side, Amazon is said to be impressed with the vans, and Rivian only has one customer for this program, who appears to be patient, so there appears to be little risk on the delivery van program.
Launching a new car company is very difficult, it takes money, vision, good decisions, and probably good luck. My son works at Lucid which has a great product but at a sizable cost. Hopefully they will be able to scale up successfully, they have a better chance than most, I think.
Rivian has a great product, but they seem to be having problems, hopefully they will make it.
Launching a new car company is very difficult, it takes money, vision, good decisions, and probably good luck. My son works at Lucid which has a great product but at a sizable cost. Hopefully they will be able to scale up successfully, they have a better chance than most, I think.
Rivian has a great product, but they seem to be having problems, hopefully they will make it.
I bought some stock in LCID, so I hope they are successful.
Launching a new car company is very difficult, it takes money, vision, good decisions, and probably good luck. My son works at Lucid which has a great product but at a sizable cost. Hopefully they will be able to scale up successfully, they have a better chance than most, I think.
Rivian has a great product, but they seem to be having problems, hopefully they will make it.
Yes, I think all of the above are needed. Even having great, innovative product ideas is not enough to ensure business success on its own. You have to be able to secure adequate funding, you have to be able to hire strong people in all the key positions. You have to control the scope of your project(s), and control costs. While it's good to be optimistic, you have to plan for some setbacks - don't assume all will go right later, just because it's gone right so far. You have to have people that are good at marketing the company and its products to investors and customers. And as you say, you still might need some luck.
Lucid has some impressive vehicles - wishing your son and the company all the best.
Last edited by OutdoorLover; 02-15-2023 at 05:23 AM..
I would think that Rivian's contract for 100K delivery vans to Amazon would be the ideal way for them to quickly ramp up production. All are the identical vehicle with the same list of specs and options, even the same color. If they can't ramp up with this order, good luck ramping up on the consumer market where every vehicle has different options, colors, etc.
I would think that Rivian's contract for 100K delivery vans to Amazon would be the ideal way for them to quickly ramp up production. All are the identical vehicle with the same list of specs and options, even the same color. If they can't ramp up with this order, good luck ramping up on the consumer market where every vehicle has different options, colors, etc.
Yea, Rivian (and Lucid) are in relatively privileged positions compared to most other automotive startups. They have functioning factories that they own rather than contracting out manufacturing out elsewhere and actual products out in the real world along with backers with fairly deep pockets. Rivian's 100K firm delivery van order from Amazon by itself is a pretty massive ramp for them to get kinks worked out.
I think to add to the list of places hitting hard times is the Sono Motors and Lightyear Motors.
Sono Motors seems to have a pathway towards a viable business via "automotive-grade", as they call it, solar cell integration into vehicles especially trucks and trailers for commercial operations, but their independently developed vehicle the Sono Sion for mass consumer use is having difficulties and they're now trying for another round of crowdfunding: https://sonomotors.com/
Simply launching a company in a popular or trendy industry is a way for the founders to get rich regardless of whether the company survives or not. I guarantee you that the founders of rivian are going to walk away smiling even if their company folds.
The way the corporate structure is its Shields the assets of the people running it from the actual corporate structure itself. It's actually sort of a scam if you really look into the details of how corporations and LLCs and various entities work. Nobody puts a gun to anybody's head and forces these people to give these startups money though.
I looked in on some promising EV startups and found that they have had some setbacks...
UK-headquarted Arrival, who are primarily in the business of electric trucks and vans, recently laid of half its workforce. I thought these guys were very promising from the engineering and manufacturing perspective, with their scalable platform architecture, simplified manufacture of composite bodies in microfactories. Not long ago they were riding high, inking deals and opening new offices and starting in on production plants for buses, vans and more, in the UK and the USA and evaluating sites all over. Now, they've obviously run into some headwinds, and their stock is in the basement, and they've warned they may run out of cash within a year.
US-based Aptera, who have been developing the quirky, futuristic looking, ultra-efficient 3-wheeler, may be running out of juice financially, even as they are on the cusp of product rollout. It was reported that they were showing off their gamma development edition of the vehicle in Switzerland at an investment conference. They don't actually need that much money, reportedly just $50M to make it into production, and they have a bunch of preorders, plus some experienced industry partners and supporters, but... it's not clear if they will make it over the finish line.
Rivian, which had big financial backing from Amazon, Ford, and many other investors has made it into production with their R1T truck - to universally enthusiastic acclaim from reviewers. You'd think they'd be all set. But they've been having all kinds of manufacturing problems with the R1T and product delivery, and hence revenue, have been slow. Ford recently sold their stake in Rivian, but Amazon has stuck by them. Things are said to be improving slowly with the R1T manufacturing, and they have delivered 20,000 R1Ts in 2022, but more progress is needed. Rivian has also developed a bespoke delivery van for Amazon that is also said to be an outstanding product. They've delivered over 1,000 vans to Amazon so far, but they have an order for 100,000. On the positive side, Amazon is said to be impressed with the vans, and Rivian only has one customer for this program, who appears to be patient, so there appears to be little risk on the delivery van program.
Startups are hard, and I think just general economic conditions are taking a toll.
I wouldn't be surprised if some of these companies get purchased by another automaker, whethere something like Tesla or even a legacy automaker who is interested in possibly the nameplate, but moreso the tech and production facilities.
I wouldn't be surprised if some of these companies get purchased by another automaker, whethere something like Tesla or even a legacy automaker who is interested in possibly the nameplate, but moreso the tech and production facilities.
I've thought the same, especially if they have tech or supplies that are needed by a large manufacturer. However, I initially thought the same of Tesla until their value soared past all the other auto companies.
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