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Rivian's platform approach to electric vehicles helped it raise $3B this year

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Re: Rivian's platform approach to electric vehicles helped it raise $3B this year

#61

Post by gumby »

jakelazaroff wrote: post #9

> On Monday, Rivian announced it had raised $1.3 billion in its fourth funding round of the year, led by T. Rowe Price, bringing its total for 2019 to nearly $2.9 billion. > Rivian has been quietly developing vehicles for a decade, but it seized the industry’s attention in late 2018, when it unveiled a pair of eye-catching, high-end electric trucks. Rivian raised $2.9 billion over four funding rounds in the span of o…

> Rivian raised $2.9 billion over four funding rounds in the span of one year? And it's been around for a full decade without ever releasing a product? Does this not set off alarm bells?

Not necessarily. They just signed some huge deals with Ford and Amazon, both of whom invested. What likely happened is that Rivian needed a lot of money for cap ex an inventory and wanted the customer to prepay. Those customers had a lot of power and so likely said, "Sure, but we'll take equity thank you very much."

I've bootrapped companies by having the customer underwrite the development cost but the sums have been so small (hundreds of $K, once a few million) that they weren't worth the customers (megacorps) worrying about this kind of thing. But when the sums needed are in the hundreds of millions, the CFO's office, if not the CEO, is gonna try to get something back.

Re: Rivian's platform approach to electric vehicles helped it raise $3B this year

#62

Post by rubyn00bie »

jakelazaroff wrote: post #60
KaoruAoiShiho wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's strange about this? When it doesn't have anything to show investors shy away. Prove its chops with some impressive prototypes and investors rush in.

I am skeptical that Rivian has "proven its chops". Consider Magic Leap, a company with a some impressive prototypes that used its $2.6 billion of funding to… sell 6,000 headsets, out of a goal of one million. https://techcrunch.com/2019/12/06/report-magic-leaps-early-d...

Well... Magic Leap has no market, it literally has to invent one out of thin air. There is a gigantic market for trucks, and the market price for trucks is well established.

In one people invested in something that was unproven with an unknown market, the other people are investing in something the market already has show demand for... Seems pretty damn different to me /shrug

Re: Rivian's platform approach to electric vehicles helped it raise $3B this year

#63

Post by electriclove »

jakelazaroff wrote: post #9

> On Monday, Rivian announced it had raised $1.3 billion in its fourth funding round of the year, led by T. Rowe Price, bringing its total for 2019 to nearly $2.9 billion. > Rivian has been quietly developing vehicles for a decade, but it seized the industry’s attention in late 2018, when it unveiled a pair of eye-catching, high-end electric trucks. Rivian raised $2.9 billion over four funding rounds in the span of o…

It is yet another effort (fuel cell, Nikola, lucid, workhorse) by the existing industry to divert attention and money away from the few players (mainly Tesla) that are actually delivering battery electric vehicles. /tinfoil

Re: Rivian's platform approach to electric vehicles helped it raise $3B this year

#64

Post by bretpiatt »

seriesf wrote: post #52
Zanni wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the hype is over the vehicles themselves. EVs are the future. And, as William Gibson famously said, "The future is already here, it's just unevenly distributed." Once you experience the quiet, convenience and power of an EV, it's hard to go back to an ICE car. We're already past the early-adopter phase. Improvements in price, range and charging infrastructure (already happening) will capture everyone else.

The EV market has already hit a plateau, suggesting that it has exhausted the customer base for very expensive cars with short ranges. September 2019 sales were down (US and global) vs 2018, and 2019 Q3 sales were down vs Q3 2018 as well (also for the US and globally). These sales figures suggest that EVs need something new, like lower prices or more utility, to start growing again.

How do you determine sales (demand) plateau vs. sales (manufacturing capacity or brand loyalty having customers wait for their brand to ship) plateau vs. model availability plateau (i.e. no electric truck is shipping today, no fullsize SUV, no minivan, etc.)?

TCO my math has EV better than ICE already even in the US with lower fuel prices and typically higher mileage per day than EU.

Re: Rivian's platform approach to electric vehicles helped it raise $3B this year

#65

Post by ctdonath »

thdrdt wrote: post #33
x3haloed wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's actually quite the opposite. If you need a truck for its utility which one makes more sense? The Cybertruck is less expensive, has more range, bigger payload, higher towing capacity, access to the best charging network in the world. Why would you buy a Rivian instead? The only reason I can think of is that it looks more conventional. If you need a truck, you buy the Tesla. If you want a lifestyle truck t…

When it comes to utility design the Rivian is far far ahead. It's not about more conventional but about more convenient. One example: you cannot throw stuff in the back of the Tesla from the side. And when it comes to towing: nobody will use an electric vehicle yet. You can buy a gas truck for half the price with the same towing capacity. A gas truck with the same price as the Tesla will have twice the towing capacit…

Towing its exactly why I ordered a Cybertruck. Just waiting for confirmation the bed is suitable for "fifth wheel" camping trailer.

Re: Rivian's platform approach to electric vehicles helped it raise $3B this year

#66

Post by hourislate »

jakelazaroff wrote: post #9

> On Monday, Rivian announced it had raised $1.3 billion in its fourth funding round of the year, led by T. Rowe Price, bringing its total for 2019 to nearly $2.9 billion. > Rivian has been quietly developing vehicles for a decade, but it seized the industry’s attention in late 2018, when it unveiled a pair of eye-catching, high-end electric trucks. Rivian raised $2.9 billion over four funding rounds in the span of o…

I've stopped paying attention to all these auto manufactures like Rivian, VW, etc. All they do is keep announcing how they are going to take the industry by storm but yet never release a product or are working on it. Meanwhile Tesla pumps out a few thousand vehicles a month and the media makes it sound like it in big trouble. Ford, GM, VW are junk.I wouldn't buy any of their vehicles ICE or Electric. I worked for Ford 20 or so years ago and bought a Toyota (2000 4Runneris still going @ 300k + miles).

Although I'm glad they're pursuing electrification, it's all B.S until I see mass production.

If I were a betting man, all my money would be on the one horse that actually showed up for the race.

Re: Rivian's platform approach to electric vehicles helped it raise $3B this year

#68

Post by hansdieter1337 »

Sounds familiar to NIO. They raised a total of $4.1B. This whole electric hype is interesting to me. Why is it better for the environment? In the end you drive around with however the power from the grid was produced. Even in California that’s only one third renewables. Most is natural gas and nuclear. So, your electric car is driving around with natural gas with an efficiency way worse than petroleum. Besides, disposing the batteries is an issue. Also, the required rare earths might become an issue (especially because China kind of owns the market).

Re: Rivian's platform approach to electric vehicles helped it raise $3B this year

#69

Post by samstave »

x3haloed wrote: post #37
thdrdt wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When it comes to utility design the Rivian is far far ahead. It's not about more conventional but about more convenient. One example: you cannot throw stuff in the back of the Tesla from the side. And when it comes to towing: nobody will use an electric vehicle yet. You can buy a gas truck for half the price with the same towing capacity. A gas truck with the same price as the Tesla will have twice the towing capacit…

What?! Sure it can be more convenient to drop things into the bed, but have you ever tried to get things back out of the bed of a full size pickup? Beds are tall. That's why it's more convenient to store things in the storage room compartments on the side of the Tesla's bed. Give me another example of how Rivian’s utility design is "far ahead".

Have you seen the side loading compartment o nthe Rivian? Its a pretty cool design...

However - I am interested in neither the rivian and the tesla for their beds -- what I really want is the skateboard from the rivian and the ability to custom build the car I want on it -- if this takes off we can get back to the boutique still car shops of the 20s and earlier.

Re: Rivian's platform approach to electric vehicles helped it raise $3B this year

#70

Post by rudedogg »

tartrate wrote: post #48
thdrdt wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When it comes to utility design the Rivian is far far ahead. It's not about more conventional but about more convenient. One example: you cannot throw stuff in the back of the Tesla from the side. And when it comes to towing: nobody will use an electric vehicle yet. You can buy a gas truck for half the price with the same towing capacity. A gas truck with the same price as the Tesla will have twice the towing capacit…

Do you mean that you can't throw stuff in the back of the Cybertruck when the bed cover is open? If so, why not?

They’re talking about access from the side.

Since the body of the CyberTruck gradually raises to the roof line, you can’t easily reach into the bed close to the rear window.

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