Why Rivian Stock Crashed Today: The Shocking Truth Behind the Plunge

Rivian shares just hit a brutal wall—here's what really triggered the selloff.

Production Woes Bite Hard

Supply chain snags and manufacturing delays slammed the electric vehicle maker's output targets. Investors aren't waiting around to see if Rivian can fix its assembly line headaches.

Cash Burn Accelerates

The company's bleeding money faster than a crypto degen on leverage—burn rate spiked as R&D costs overwhelmed revenue. Wall Street's patience is wearing thinner than a memecoin's utility.

Competition Crushes Hype

Legacy automakers and Tesla are eating Rivian's lunch with cheaper, faster-to-market EVs. First-mover advantage? More like first-to-fumble reality check.

Another 'growth story' learning that making actual cars is harder than selling vision decks to VCs. But hey—at least the stock's drop was more predictable than a bitcoin maximalist's tweet during a correction.

Image source: Rivian Automotive.

Amazon's grand plan

In 2019, Amazon made headlines when it asked Rivian to supply it with 100,000 electric delivery vans through 2030. Five years later, half these vans were already on the road. But as Rivian's financial problems mount, Amazon may be seeking an off ramp.

In comments to Bloomberg today, Amazon restated its 100,000-electric van objective -- with a twist: "We're committed to having 100,000 electric delivery vehicles on the road by 2030, and we regularly test various vehicle options -- including a small number of Chevrolet BrightDrops in our fleet."

Notice the change: "100,000 electric delivery vehicles" period -- not "100,000 Rivians."

Bloomberg notes Amazon only has about a dozen GM vans in its fleet at present, but these are running alongside alternative electronic models from(F -0.72%),(STLA -2.25%), and Mercedes -- in addition to Rivian.

Is it time to sell Rivian stock?

Amazon wants 100,000 electric vans on the road by 2030, and if Rivian can't build them all (or Amazon decides it doesn't want just Rivians) then other manufacturers will happily thank Amazon for its business. Granted, all's not lost. Rivian might end up delivering 100,000 e-vans to Amazon -- and Amazon might supplement those with even more e-vans from other manufacturers.

What's more important to me as an investor is the fact that even with Amazon's business, Rivian lost $4.7 billion last year. And even with Amazon's business, Rivian's expected to keep losing money all the way into 2031.

That sounds more like a sell than a buy to me.