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All without delivering a single retail car.

lordofgibbons 5y ago
You can't really build a car factory on nights and weekends. Factories require billions of dollars in investments. I don't see how you can expect them to have delivered a car before raising money
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- onethought 5y ago
  They've raised 6 billion BEFORE this. This takes them to 8.5 total... 100% they should have delivered something by now.
  - clouddrover 5y ago
    They have. Rivian has delivered Amazon delivery vehicles which make deliveries: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJJNTVy62PU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJJNTVy62PU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LGtskt4YGA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LGtskt4YGA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzRDuLo3K6Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzRDuLo3K6Q Deliveries of the R1T should start in September after being delayed: https://www.thedrive.com/news/41578/rivian-r1t-deliveries-arent-starting-this-month-after-all https://www.thedrive.com/news/41578/rivian-r1t-deliveries-ar...
    - cheeze 5y ago
      They've delivered what, a handful of those? When its a big deal that one of them is seen in a city, I feel like that says something.
      - _eht 5y ago
        It says they 100% delivered. So…
    - grecy 5y ago
      Color me skeptical. A a few months ago it was "deliveries will begin in June". Then it was July. Then August, and now September. I'm sure they'll get there, but I wouldn't hold my breath while waiting.
    - cavisne 5y ago
      Lending a prototype to your biggest investor is not the same as selling a car to a consumer.
  - hedberg10 5y ago
    Nikola, Lordstown, 100s of Chinese companies, 10 or 20 "startups" going for the delivery niche... Billions, yet vapor. Life in times of the cool-aide.
    - project2501a 5y ago
      Coping from my other comment: What you should take away is that there is money to throw around. A lot of fucking money. Which is not going into our pockets as employees, but easily given to those in the know, even with a huge chance of everything going to vapor. Remember that, next time you ask for a raise.
      - Jommi 5y ago
        Isn't that exactly what's happening tho? This money is ending up into companies that will fail - only the compensation the employees get in this competitive market will build real long term value.
melomal 5y ago
You'll own nothing and be happy about it as the life motto goes.
jsight 5y ago
Yeah, that was a lot of the criticism of Tesla as well, as they raised a lot of money before getting into volume production. Its to be expected, though, as the car business requires a lot of capital.
- maverick-iceman 5y ago
  > as the car business requires a lot of capital And thus it's a bad business by definition, which doesn't merit billions of capital investments. Even if the investment thesis is that the whole world is rooting for them, and government will turn lots of blind eyes because of the "green mission", and they'd be first in line ESG funds allocation of capital... Still all those elements don't propel you to SaaS type margins such as Google or Microsoft or Facebook. Frothy valuations for companies which are building stuff in the real world are driven by the promotional power of said stuff and the CEO marketing ability, in fact people are fascinated by cars, it looks cool and it's out there in front of you.
  - jsight 5y ago
    IMO, you really aren't wrong about it being a bad business. There's a reason that so few have been successful. I can count on one finger the number of American companies that have been founded and made it past 100k units in my lifetime. One hand for those that made it to even the first few thousand units. Its not an investment that I'd want to make. I'm glad that folks are trying anyway, though. I love cars and love the products, but I can't rationalize it as a great business to invest in.
- sesuximo 5y ago
  Really? I thought the roadster came out really quickly after Tesla was founded Edit: founded in 2003-4, roadster came out in 2008
  - akiselev 5y ago
    The Roadster used a Lotus chassis. It was more like an EV conversion than a new production model.
kotaKat 5y ago
They have been delivering to their commercial customers, however. Amazon's been taking deliveries of their new vans, and at least one R1T was sold to Blue Origin.

You can't really build a car factory on nights and weekends. Factories require billions of dollars in investments. I don't see how you can expect them to have delivered a car before raising money

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
onethought 5y ago
They've raised 6 billion BEFORE this. This takes them to 8.5 total... 100% they should have delivered something by now.
- clouddrover 5y ago
  They have. Rivian has delivered Amazon delivery vehicles which make deliveries: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJJNTVy62PU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJJNTVy62PU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LGtskt4YGA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LGtskt4YGA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzRDuLo3K6Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzRDuLo3K6Q Deliveries of the R1T should start in September after being delayed: https://www.thedrive.com/news/41578/rivian-r1t-deliveries-arent-starting-this-month-after-all https://www.thedrive.com/news/41578/rivian-r1t-deliveries-ar...
  - cheeze 5y ago
    They've delivered what, a handful of those? When its a big deal that one of them is seen in a city, I feel like that says something.
    - _eht 5y ago
      It says they 100% delivered. So…
  - grecy 5y ago
    Color me skeptical. A a few months ago it was "deliveries will begin in June". Then it was July. Then August, and now September. I'm sure they'll get there, but I wouldn't hold my breath while waiting.
  - cavisne 5y ago
    Lending a prototype to your biggest investor is not the same as selling a car to a consumer.
- hedberg10 5y ago
  Nikola, Lordstown, 100s of Chinese companies, 10 or 20 "startups" going for the delivery niche... Billions, yet vapor. Life in times of the cool-aide.
  - project2501a 5y ago
    Coping from my other comment: What you should take away is that there is money to throw around. A lot of fucking money. Which is not going into our pockets as employees, but easily given to those in the know, even with a huge chance of everything going to vapor. Remember that, next time you ask for a raise.
    - Jommi 5y ago
      Isn't that exactly what's happening tho? This money is ending up into companies that will fail - only the compensation the employees get in this competitive market will build real long term value.

melomal 5y ago

You'll own nothing and be happy about it as the life motto goes.

jsight 5y ago

Yeah, that was a lot of the criticism of Tesla as well, as they raised a lot of money before getting into volume production. Its to be expected, though, as the car business requires a lot of capital.

maverick-iceman 5y ago
> as the car business requires a lot of capital And thus it's a bad business by definition, which doesn't merit billions of capital investments. Even if the investment thesis is that the whole world is rooting for them, and government will turn lots of blind eyes because of the "green mission", and they'd be first in line ESG funds allocation of capital... Still all those elements don't propel you to SaaS type margins such as Google or Microsoft or Facebook. Frothy valuations for companies which are building stuff in the real world are driven by the promotional power of said stuff and the CEO marketing ability, in fact people are fascinated by cars, it looks cool and it's out there in front of you.
- jsight 5y ago
  IMO, you really aren't wrong about it being a bad business. There's a reason that so few have been successful. I can count on one finger the number of American companies that have been founded and made it past 100k units in my lifetime. One hand for those that made it to even the first few thousand units. Its not an investment that I'd want to make. I'm glad that folks are trying anyway, though. I love cars and love the products, but I can't rationalize it as a great business to invest in.
sesuximo 5y ago
Really? I thought the roadster came out really quickly after Tesla was founded Edit: founded in 2003-4, roadster came out in 2008
- akiselev 5y ago
  The Roadster used a Lotus chassis. It was more like an EV conversion than a new production model.

kotaKat 5y ago

They have been delivering to their commercial customers, however. Amazon's been taking deliveries of their new vans, and at least one R1T was sold to Blue Origin.