Supply Chain Struggles, Future Plans, and More: Rivian CFO Sheds Light at Tech Conference

Rivian Chief Financial Offer Claire McDonough took to the stage at the Goldman Sachs’ Communacopia + Technology conference to discuss Rivian and answer questions about where Rivian is heading. We listened to the call and broke down some important details and information in an easy-to-read list.

• From the start, Rivian has been aiming to build not only the best EV in the market but the best vehicle.
• The Gen 1 Rivian R1T was overengineered solely to make a statement, we think it did.
• McDonough admits that Rivian struggled recently with supply change issues which led to temporarily stopping the production of EDVs. Production has since resumed.
• The VW and Rivian partnership will allow for the sharing of future development costs reducing the financial strain on Rivian.
• Sometime in the second half of 2025, Rivian expects to temporarily close the Normal, IL plant to help integrate R2 into the production line.
• After this upgrade, the Normal plant will be able to produce 215,000 units per year.
• Rivian is currently running pilot programs with some big names, but McDonough refused to spill any names.
• Rivian plans to only have one shift for EDV in 2025 as high initial costs are a concern to many prospective buyers.
• Rivian plans to launch “pay-to-play” autonomy features in 2025 for Gen 2 vehicles.
• There are no current plans to solve autonomous driving and there are no robotaxis in Rivian’s future.
• All of Rivian’s self-driving tech is based on an AI-first approach which means current vehicles on the road today are already helping make Rivian’s self-driving software even better.
• Rivian aims to still have modest gross profits in Q4 2024.
• McDonough expects positive earnings sometime in 2027.
• Demand for R2, R3, and R3X is at an all-time high right now.
• Post-2025, Rivian plans to use Germany as the entry point into Europe. Germany has an already established and growing EDV network.
• R2 is designed to be a global vehicle so expect it to make its way to other countries in the future.
• Rivian has confirmed that they are working on a Gen 1 to Gen 2 trade-in program and more NACS adapters are coming soon!

RJ Scargine is expected to speak on the Rivian’s future at the Morgan Stanley conference this upcoming Wednesday so stay tuned to RivianTrackr for any new details.

Shoutout to autoevolution for assisting with these details and gathering information for this article.