Electric car maker
Tesla rival Rivian makes a furious start on the stock exchange
The US electric car developer Rivian met with even greater interest than expected when it went public. Photo: Paul Sancya / AP / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The electric car maker Rivian is celebrating a brilliant debut on the Nasdaq. Despite the deep red numbers and so far hardly any turnover, the US company starts with a market value of over 90 billion dollars.
Investors fought for the shares of Tesla rival in the eagerly anticipated IPO of US electric car maker Rivian.
When trading started on the New York Tech Stock Exchange Nasdaq, the first price was 106.75 dollars, around 37 percent above the issue price of 78 dollars. The company had raised around $ 11.9 billion the day before by issuing 153 million shares, making it its largest IPO this year. The share price and issue volume had already been significantly increased beforehand.
With a market value of around 93 billion dollars or the equivalent of around 81 billion euros, Rivian is trading significantly higher than the German industry giant BMW, which last brought it to a good 59 billion euros. Even the largest US automaker General Motors is surpassed by Rivian with around six billion dollars. This is where the US company is, whose major investors include the online giant Amazon and Ford count, still deep in the red. In the last round of financing before going public in January, Rivian was valued at just under $ 28 billion.
According to its own information, the e-car company has around 9,500 employees, of which over 3,300 are employed in the main US plant in the state of Illinois. Rivian has not yet made any noteworthy sales, but in September it launched its first electric model in the competitive pick-up segment and thus won a race with Tesla, among others. The company also has an electric SUV in the pipeline, deliveries of which are scheduled to begin at the end of the year. Rivian has also won a lucrative major order from Amazon for 100,000 electric delivery vans.
Rivian founder RJ Scaringe sees his company as a pioneer in its mission to establish electromobility in the mass market and is thus relying on a marketing strategy similar to that of Tesla boss Elon Musk. Extraordinary steps are necessary to preserve the natural ecosystems and build a secure future for future generations, the Rivian boss announced at the IPO. “In the next two decades we must completely transform our planet’s transport and energy systems.” Even if Rivian Tesla got ahead with the first e-pickup, the Musk group is still far superior to its new rival with a market value of over a trillion dollars.