Good Forbes Article on Rivian - production number estimates and vehicle servicing mentioned

[skyote]

What was the annual production in the Normal plant at its peak when Mitsubishi trucks were rolling off of it?

Over 250K
*at its peak, and those were smaller vehicles

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[Coast2Coast]

Yes, 250K vehicles per year, but Rivian is starting from scratch and not taking over Mitsubishi Motors equipment and transfer lines. So, Rivian has a 2.6 million square foot, former Mitsubishi plant to which it's already added 400K more square feet. Setting up and starting a 3 million square foot new auto plant will take a lot of time, but a production run of 20K vehicles in the first full year of production seems doable.

Why? A brand new plant. Rivian's not trying to rework someone else's plant and equipment. Rivian also has a lot of experienced auto industry employees, line workers, engineers and managers, and presumably it has the good will of Ford. And there's RJ and his team. They've been getting ready for this moment for at least the last 4-5 years.

In 2012, Tesla produced 3,100 model S's, the first year of partial production; by 2013, Tesla was promising shareholders in its annual report an annualized rate of production of 20,000 vehicles.

So, 20,000 vehicles in the first, full year of production, 2021, seems possible. Doubling that to 40K in 2022 also seems possible. However, Rivian will be trying to assemble four different models, the R1T, R1S, Amazon Prime commercial trucks and skateboards for Ford (Lincoln) at Normal. That much complexity in the vehicle production mix may slow down Rivian's ability to ramp up production.

 

[Kickaha]

Great info!

I am not in the heavy manufacturing industry so I really dont know but I worry about the distance between "possible" and "realistic".

I just want my truck!

haha

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