In the US new energy vehicle capital market, although Rivian's cars are not sold much, they are sought after because they have always been regarded as a "Trass enemy". However, on the 10th, Rivian's stock price plummeted by more than 7% to a three-month low, closing at $31.48, an

In the US new energy vehicle capital market, although Rivian cars are not sold much, they are sought after because they have always been regarded as the "Tras rival". However, on the 10th, Rivian's stock price plummeted by more than 7% to a three-month low, closing at US$31.48, and fell by more than 80% from the highest point reached within a few days of listing.

The reason for the short-term plunge of the company's stock price is that Rivian, which has finally started delivering, is now almost recalling all vehicles.

Specifically, the California-based company is recalling about 12,200 cars due to "loose fasteners on the front suspension of the vehicle," according to a document submitted by Rivian to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration .

It is reported that since production began at the end of 2021, Rivian has produced about 13,000 trucks. It is estimated that the defect exists in 1% of its vehicles and can cause noise and vibration and, in the most extreme cases, cause the driver to lose steering control. Why does

Rivian have this quality problem? Are you still optimistic about the new North American car manufacturing forces in the future?

, head of the new energy vehicle investment research team of the big data company under UnionPay and a special overseas automobile researcher at Dolphin Investment Research, said in an interview with the First Financial reporter that generally speaking, new car manufacturing forces will face the choice of production and quality control. This not only happens to Rivian, another famous Lucid also recalled and tested all vehicles in May this year, on the grounds that the glass screen control wiring harness may not work.

"The reason behind this is that in the stage where production capacity needs to fully increase production, quality control is often despised to a certain extent. Another important reason is that new power manufacturers have relatively weak voice over the supply chain. When the order volume is low, problems often occur because the parts do not meet the standards." He said.

"Full-out sprint for the production capacity stage, quality is prone to problems."

Rivian is one of the highly anticipated electric vehicle startups in the US market. Since its establishment, it has been known as the " Tesla strong rival" and has been highly sought after by the capital market.

However, as a company that has delivered only more than 10,000 cars, Rivian's current market value is still close to US$30 billion, about one-third of its valuation at the time of its listing.

Time goes back to 2019, and the agreement with Amazon to supply 100,000 electric trucks helped drive Rivian's initial public offering (IPO) in 2021. But this year, Rivian suffered a setback: its second largest shareholder, Amazon, agreed to buy trucks from its competitors.

In this recall, Rivian said that as of September 28, seven cars have been found to be affected by loose nuts. The repair “takes several minutes to complete” and the company is expected to complete the recall within 30 days.

"The safety of our customers is always our top priority," Rivian said in a statement. "To date, we have not found any harm caused by this issue."

Although recalls are common in the automotive industry, it marks the second recall of electric vehicle startups in a month: Nikola, previously based in , Arizona-based (primarily developing hydrogen fuel cell and battery-powered new energy heavy trucks) recalled all 93 trucks it made due to improper seat belt installation. Rivian's recall is a clear setback for consumer enthusiasm as consumer demand rises.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said: "In a turbulent market, the last thing any Rivian investor wants is widespread recalls that damage the brand."

"Rivian has been under the Wall Street 's attention, and its team is in the main 'prove me' mode. With this latest news, the company must overcome this slight retreat at the moment." Ives said, however, he does not think the current time will prevent Rivian from achieving production or delivery goals in 2022.Currently, Wade Bush Securities still gave Rivian a "outperform" rating and a target stock price of $45.

A week ago, Rivian said it is still expected to achieve the production target of 25,000 trucks that have been lowered this year.

Guo Fangjie told the First Financial reporter that Rivian only delivered more than 1,200 cars in the first quarter and more than 4,400 cars in the second quarter. At present, the company still does not lower its annual production guidance for delivering 25,000 vehicles, which means Rivian's production in the second half of the year will be three times that of the first half of the year. "In this stage of sprinting production capacity with all efforts, quality is easy to have problems," he said.

Is Wall Street still optimistic about new forces in car manufacturing?

RBC said in a report that it is more concerned about Rivian's production expectations in 2023, and its upcoming battery pack, motor production, and the time it takes for factories to increase capacity may disrupt Rivian's production pace.

If the prediction scope is expanded to new North American car manufacturing forces, especially the electric pickup truck field, what is the prospect?

Haitong Securities Senior analyst in technology industry Li Xuan believed in an interview with the First Financial reporter that from an industry perspective, Rivian still has great potential. "The current competition for electric pickup trucks is actually limited, with only 2 to 3 players, Ford is the dominant one, Tesla has not started delivering, but the corresponding demand is continuing to grow."

Li Xuan said that the reason why Rivian has suffered a significant loss is that the current company's delivery volume is too low, resulting in excessive depreciation and amortization of fixed assets such as the company's factories and production lines. It is expected that as the production capacity continues to increase, Rivian will not only dilute production and manufacturing costs, but also reduce SGA (i.e. sales, general and administrative expenses) and R&D expenses, and the losses are expected to narrow in the future.

"However, in the end, it depends on Rivian's product strength and brand strength, supply chain capabilities and production and manufacturing capabilities." Li Xuan said.

. In Guo Fangjie's view, there may not be much time left for Rivian at the moment. "Rivian spends money too quickly, and its production capacity is rising too slowly." He said, "and its competitor Ford Auto is the overlord of the pickup truck industry for more than 40 years. Its pure electric pickup truck F-150 Lightning has started selling in May, and the cumulative orders are currently more than 200,000. At the same time, don't forget the Tesla CyberTruck, which holds millions of orders."

Guo Fangjie further stated that from the perspective of consumers, the multiple recalls have had a significant brand impact on Rivian. Rivian is expensive, with long waiting time for orders and expensive repairs that are also discouraging for some consumers. "It depends on whether Rivian can complete the delivery in the second half of the year and ensure that there is no major quality problem, so that he can enter the next round of competition. Otherwise, even if he holds a large order from Amazon, he may gradually fall behind in the future," he said.