Rivian has published its official Q1 2023 production and delivery numbers, with 9 395 and 7 946 vehicles, respectively. That is slightly less still than the numbers achieved in Q4 2022, although the American EV start-up assures its customers and investors that Rivian is on track to produce 50 000 vehicles in 2023.

Life is still not great at Rivian, but it seems to improve slightly. After producing a decent result in Q4 2022 with 10 020 vehicles produced and 8 054 delivered, the California-based manufacturer (with an Illinois-based factory) replicated the results again in Q1 2023.

Target in sight for 2023

It’s still a bit off the required amount to reach the projected target of 50 000 vehicles. Still, COO Frank Klein, who was poached from manufacturing expert Magna Steyr last year, is confident that the target will be hit in 2023, with production still ramping up. A night shift was only added recently to boost numbers and keep the factory running as much as possible.

Rivian also mentions progress made with integrating its in-house ‘Enduro’ electric drive unit into its Electric Delivery Van (EDV), which it produces for Amazon. It would provide a reduction in production costs and an improvement in efficiency.

Along with the EDV, Rivian currently produces the R1T electric pickup and the technically similar R1S SUV, which was delayed until mid-2022. In February, the start-up had to fire 6% of its staff to cut costs after going to a first round of layoffs in June 2022. The partnership plans with Mercedes to build electric vans were also scrapped in December 2022 to focus on ramping up production.