"I can't imagine they're that dumb". Honestly, we can't discount the possibility. We already know that before the IPO there was an executive trying to sound the alarm bell about negative margins. It is a fact that they were "that dumb" about not raising prices until way too late.
Investor management has been a disaster. Anytime you have big institutional shareholders dumping huge blocks on the exact day the lockup expires, you've got a problem.
Yes indeed. Tesla has always optimized the snot out of their vehicles from the get go. And now five years after delivering the first model 3, Tesla has incredibly awesome COGS through five years of further optimization. Meanwhile the R1T doesn't look like it has had ANY cost reduction optimization anywhere. Somewhere along the way, Rivian forgot that EVs are naturally expensive due to the battery and you have to work really damn hard to get them anywhere near cost competitive with an ICE.
And with the issues of production ramping, supply chain, design optimization for cost reduction, inflation, worker shortages, and a bad financial environment (possible recession and certainly an investment winter), they think that spending executive time on starting a new factory is the thing to do?
I've asked in previous screeds for
evidence that Rivian management has their *sugar* together. I haven't seen it yet.
Having said all that,
@RobStark is correct that the vehicles and brand aren't going to go away. In the worst case scenario, someone with deeper pockets and better management will buy them. So I wouldn't have (and don't have) any problem buying a Rivian vehicle. Just stay away from the stock