Tesla EV Rival Rivian Said To Tell Buyers It's On Track For September Deliveries

Amazon.com Inc AMZN and Ford Motor Co F-backed electric vehicle maker Rivian is on track to begin deliveries of its electric pickup truck R1T in September, as per Teslarati.com, which cited CEO RJ Scaringe’s letter to pre-order holders.

What Happened: Scaringe told customers that the company continues to build “more and more vehicles every day” in Normal, Illinois and is on track to begin deliveries in September. 

Scaringe had last month revealed to customers a delay in the deliveries of the launch edition of its electric pickup truck R1T to September, previously expected in July. R1S deliveries have been pushed back to fall.

“It’s inspiring to see how the entire company is coming together for us to start deliveries—everything from dialing in our production process to ramping up our service network to managing our supply chain,” Scaringe reportedly wrote in the letter.

Rivian aims to install more than 3,500 fast DC chargers at 600 sites in its Rivian Adventure Network. In addition, the EV automaker also plans to install at least 10,000 Level 2 AC chargers/connectors as part of its Rivian Waypoints Network. 

See Also: Tesla Rival Rivian To Install Over 3,500 Fast EV Chargers And Another 10,000 Open To Public By 2023

Why It Matters: The California-based startup, which is valued at $27.6 billion and is reportedly in advanced talks to invest at least $5 billion to build another electric vehicle factory near Fort Worth, Texas, will be among the first EV startups to roll out an actual product out in the market dominated by Tesla Inc TSLA. 

A recent spate of issues and controversies have clouded business and production plans of companies such as Lordstown Motors Corp RIDE and Nikola Corp NKLA. 

Legacy automakers such as Ford, General Motors Co GM and Volkswagen AG VWAGY have set aside billions of dollars and are setting tighter deadlines to switch their portfolios to electric vehicles from internal combustion engines amid a shift in demand and government pressure.

Chinese upstarts such as Nio Inc NIO, Warren Buffett-backed BYD Co BYDDF, Li Auto LI and others have already started selling their electric vehicles outside of the home market and plan to ramp up overseas expansion.

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Photo: Courtesy of Rivian.