Rivian (RIVN) seen as “one of the core EV players over the next decade,” says analyst
EV maker Rivian (RIVN) is seen as “one of the core EV players over the next decade,” according to Wedbush Analyst Dan Ives.
Rivian shattered analyst expectations in the second quarter, delivering 12,640 vehicles (analysts were forecasting around 11K), up 50% from the previous quarter.
While production continues climbing, with nearly 14K EVs built during the period, Rivian’s CEO RJ Scaringe highlighted the company’s improving profitability and capital efficiency.
As Rivian builds more vehicles, the company is enhancing its ability to optimize plant overhead and manufacturing operations. By adding in-house components like its new Enduro drive trains and LFP battery packs, Rivian is reducing the costs of each vehicle produced.
For example, Rivian’s gross profit per vehicle improved by $35,000 in Q2 compared to the first quarter. Rivian’s gross loss per vehicle is now (-$32,595) compared to (-$67,329) in Q1 and (-$157,000) last year.
Due to the improvements in Q2, Rivian raised its annual production guidance by 2,000, with a new goal of building 52,000 vehicles by the end of the year, more than doubling from last year (24,337).
Will Rivian be a core EV player over the next decade?
The improvements were enough for Wedbush Analyst Dan Ives, known for his Tesla coverage, to say he sees Rivian as “one of the core EV players over the next decade.”
Ives said (via Investors Business Daily) that the EV maker took “another step in the right direction” after releasing second-quarter results this week. He added that “demand looks strong” and “visibility is improving into 2024.”
After Rivian topped delivery and production estimates in July, the analyst raised his price target from $25 to $30 per share.
In a separate interview with Bloomberg TV, CEO RJ Scaringe, said, “The focus of the business is incredibly dialed in on driving up production and driving down cost,” adding, “We have a very clear line of sight” to profitability.
Scaringe said he doesn’t see the need to raise capital before the end of 2025, despite several big projects coming up. For example, Rivian is opening a new $5B facility in Georgia, where it will build its R2 products.
Following a three-month rally, Rivian stock is down 16%. Although share prices are still up 25% in 2023, Rivian’s stock is still down 87% from its all-time highs set shortly after going public in November 2021.
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Paris’ bike-share system, Vélib has long been considered one of the shining success stories of urban micromobility. With a massive fleet of over 20,000 pedal and electric-assist bicycles around Paris, the service has helped millions of residents and tourists get around the City of Light without needing a car or scooter. But lately, a growing problem is threatening to knock the wheels off this urban mobility marvel: theft and joyriding.
According to city officials and the service operator, more than 600 Vélib bikes are now going missing every single week. That’s over 30 bikes a day simply vanishing from the system – some stolen outright, others taken on “joy rides” and never returned.
“At the moment we’re missing 3,000 bikes,” explained Sylvain Raifaud, head of the Agemob company that currently operates the Velib system. That’s nearly 15% of over 20,000 Vélib bikes across Paris.
The sticky-fingered culprits aren’t necessarily professional thieves or organized crime rings. Instead, they’re often regular users who treat the shared bikes like disposable toys.
The city estimates that many people have figured out how to pry the bikes out of the system’s parking docks, unlocking one for a casual cruise and then ditching it somewhere far from a docking station.
Once pried free, the bikes are technically usable for the next 24 hours until their automatic locking feature kicks in. At that point, the bikes are often simply abandoned. Some end up in alleyways. Others get tossed in rivers. A few just disappear completely.
And since the bikes are intended to be parked at their many docking stations around the city, they don’t have GPS chips, further complicating recovery of “liberated” bikes.
The issue started small but has grown into more than an inconvenience – it’s beginning to undermine the entire purpose of the service. With bikes going missing at such a high rate, many Vélib docking stations are left empty, especially during rush hours.
Riders looking for a quick commute or a convenient hop across town are increasingly finding themselves without available bikes, or having to walk long distances to find a functioning one.
That kind of unreliability chips away at user confidence and threatens to drive potential riders back into cars, cabs, or other less sustainable forms of transport at a time when Paris has already made great strides to dramatically reduce car usage in the city.
The losses are financially painful, too. Replacing stolen or vandalized bikes isn’t cheap, and the resources spent on tracking down missing equipment or reinforcing anti-theft measures are stretching thin. Vélib has faced theft and vandalism issues before, especially during its early years, but this latest surge has officials sounding the alarm with renewed urgency.
Officials acknowledge that there’s no easy fix. Paris, like many cities with bike-share systems, walks a fine line between accessibility and accountability. Part of what makes Vélib so successful is its ease of use and widespread availability. But those same features make it vulnerable to misuse – especially when enforcement is limited and the consequences for abuse are minimal.
The timing of the problem is especially unfortunate. In recent years, Paris has seen impressive results in reducing car traffic, expanding bike lanes, and promoting cycling as a key part of its sustainable transport strategy. Vélib is a cornerstone of that plan. But if the system becomes too unreliable, it risks losing the very people it was designed to serve.
Meanwhile, as Parisians increasingly find themselves staring at empty docks, the challenge for the city and Vélib will be to restore confidence in the system without making it harder to use. That means striking the right balance between freedom and responsibility, between open access and protection against abuse.
In a city where cycling is supposed to be the future of mobility, losing thousands of bikes to joyriders and sticky fingers isn’t just frustrating; it’s unsustainable.
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