Shares of Rivian Automotive Inc. sank more than 7% in after-hours trading Tuesday after the electric-vehicle maker narrowed quarterly losses but missed sales expectations and revealed ongoing struggles with parts shortages and other manufacturing hiccups as it tries to ramp up production.
Supply-chain problems continue to be “the main limiting factor of our production” and expediting parts also took a toll, Rivian RIVN, +4.61% executives said in a letter to shareholders.
In the fourth quarter, the company “encountered multiple days of lost production due to supplier shortages,” and the “challenges” are expected to persist into 2023.
Investors also struggled to digest a slight production miss for the year and a weaker-than-hoped-for 2023 production guidance.
Rivian lost $ 1.7 billion, or $ 1.87 a share, in the quarter, compared with a loss of $ 2.5 billion, or $ 4.83 a share, in the same period last year.
Revenue jumped to $ 663 million from $ 54 million a year ago.
FactSet consensus called for a loss of $ 1.96 a share on sales of $ 724 million for Rivian.
The EV maker lost $ 6.75 billion in 2022, up from a loss of $ 4.69 billion in 2021.
“We believe the supply chain will continue to be the main limiting factor of our (Normal, Ill.) facility output,” the Rivian executives said in the letter. “Our team continues to work on the introduction of new engineering design changes and key technologies which will take effect during the second half of 2023 to help mitigate anticipated supply-chain constraints”
The EV maker guided for the production of 50,000 vehicles in 2023. Rivian produced 24,337 vehicles in 2022, just under guidance of 25,000 vehicles for the year.
Rivian also continued to pay a premium for goods and spent money on expedited freight.
The company has yet to turn a profit after going public in November 2021 in an initial public offering that valued Rivian at nearly $ 90 billion and raised about $ 12 billion.
See also: Greenlight sells off Intel and Rivian, adds Tenet, Funko
Shares of Rivian have declined about 71% in the past 12 months, which compares with losses of around 9% for the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.30%.