Electric vehicle stocks have been very hot over the previous year, and even new companies with no revenue are achieving large valuations.
There is one EV company possibly hitting the market later in 2021, named Rivian, and it is a start-up that’s already brought in $8.2 billion from Amazon, Ford, Cox Automotive, and other huge investors with real possibilities. Bloomberg says the company has found underwriters for their IPO and it might reach the market coming this fall.
But the money that Rivian has raised does not excite me, it is the products the company is planning to offer.
A unique EV need
One of the largest gaps in the EV sector has been trucks and SUVs. Tesla has stepped its toe into SUVs with the Model Y and Model X, but these were not really created as rugged off-road machines and work more as crossover-size cars.
Ford and General Motors have electric trucks coming, but nothing available yet. This means the Rivian vehicles coming this month, the R1T and R1S, will be the first real EV trucks to hit the market.
These vehicles come with a 300 mile range, the power to drive through three feet of water, and towing capacity of as much as 11,000 pounds. And the $50,000 to $70,000 price tag won’t be that much of a shocker to EV buyers.
A big buyer is already on board
The drivetrains for the R1T and R1S are the same, but they are not the only cars being built. The first to be produced will actually be Amazon delivery trucks. Here’s what the CEO of Rivian, RJ Scaringe recently Tweeted.
Amazon’s $700 million bet on Rivian was not just for equity, it was meant to create a new supplier for 400-plus-mile-range trucks that could reduce costs and lower Amazon’s carbon footprint.
What about the IPO?
Rivian is not quite a pre-revenue company with its production line being operated, but it is close. Outside of some products being given to Amazon, the company will not report a lot of revenue pre-IPO — but that will quickly change. R1T trucks are expected to begin delivery soon, with wide scale deliveries starting in early 2022.
Bloomberg says that Rivian might seek a $70 billion valuation in their IPO. I don’t usually get excited about pre-IPO businesses because we do not know much about their financials. But for Rivian, the company has the goods to succeed in the EV industry, and that is good enough for me to get excited about their IPO coming in 2021.
Author: Steven Sinclaire
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