Musk to Curb Rivian?..."Mass Production and Profitability Are Key"

▲Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla [Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Elon Musk, CEO of the American electric vehicle company Tesla, said that the "true test" for Rivian, a U.S. startup electric vehicle company considered a rival to Tesla, is whether it can achieve mass production and break-even point.

On the 11th (local time), Musk tweeted about Rivian, which was listed on Nasdaq the day before, saying, "I hope they (Rivian) reach mass production and achieve positive cash flow at the break-even point," adding, "That is the true test."

He continued, "There are hundreds of car startups, both electric and internal combustion engine, but in the past 100 years, Tesla is the only company in the U.S. to have achieved both mass production and positive cash flow."

Last month, Musk also mentioned Rivian on Twitter, stating, "Prototypes are trivial compared to production scale and supply chain, and even if they solve that, the next 'nightmare' is to achieve positive mass profitability."

Rivian, which was listed on Nasdaq on the 10th, surged nearly 30% above its IPO price on the first day of trading and rose more than 20% the next day, surpassing a market capitalization of $100 billion (approximately 117.8 trillion KRW) in just two days. This exceeds both Ford and General Motors (GM), making Rivian the second-largest car company in the U.S. by market capitalization, following Tesla.

Founded in 2009, Rivian has been recognized for its electric vehicle manufacturing technology and has received about $10.5 billion in investments from Amazon, Ford, and others since 2019. Although Rivian posted an operating loss of about $2 billion from last year through the first half of this year, it began monetizing by launching the electric pickup truck R1T in September and plans to introduce the sport utility vehicle (SUV) R1S next month. Rivian aims to produce at least one million electric vehicles annually over the next ten years.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.