July 20, 2021—Rivian Automotive, an electric truck manufacturer, is pushing back production of its debut vehicle, Bloomberg reported.
The company has tentatively pushed back production of its pickup truck from August into September and also shifted the timeline of its second model, an SUV, until an unspecified time this fall.
Rivian announced the news in a letter to customers Friday, citing a shortage of component supplies.
“The cascading impacts of the pandemic have had a compounding effect greater than anyone anticipated,” CEO R.J. Scaringe said in a letter sent Friday to customers and viewed by Bloomberg. “Everything from facility construction to equipment installation, to vehicle component supply (especially semiconductors) has been impacted by the pandemic.”
The company is a front-runner in a large pool of startups seeking to challenge Tesla in electric vehicles. Rivian has raised more than $8 billion from high-profile investors that also include Ford Motor Co. and investment manager T. Rowe Price Group, the report said.
