Story at a glance
- On Friday, Rivian Automotive announced it filed for an IPO with the SEC.
- The company has raised more than $10 billion in private funding, notably with Amazon.
- It expects to begin fulfilling customer orders by fall 2021.
Electric car manufacturer Rivian Automotive will join the growing field of publicly traded companies following the announcement of its draft IPO — or initial public offering, which allows it to sell shares of the corporation to the public — registration form on Friday.
The California-based company, with Amazon backing, said that it confidentially submitted a draft registration statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and is working on calculating its size and price range.
The IPO is slated to take place following the standard SEC review process. Rivian did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.
Should its draft form be approved, Rivian will join Tesla, Ford and General Motors as publicly traded companies that manufacture electric vehicles.
Rivian gained traction when e-commerce titan Amazon purchased about 100,000 vehicles to support its fleet of delivery trucks in a bid to keep business operations environmentally sustainable.
In July 2021, Rivian announced it closed out a private funding round having netted $2.5 billion. Its funding was led by Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, D1 Capital Partners, Ford Motor Company.
“As we near the start of vehicle production, it’s vital that we keep looking forward and pushing through to Rivian’s next phase of growth,” said Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe. “This infusion of funds from trusted partners allows Rivian to scale new vehicle programs, expand our domestic facility footprint, and fuel international product rollout.”
The company has raised $10.5 billion since 2019, per July numbers. It has a manufacturing plant in Normal, Ill., where its customer orders will be fulfilled and are slated to begin fall 2021.
The EV market — as well as adjacent companies, including batteries and charging stations — stand to perform well as President Biden’s ambitious infrastructure plan calls for the broad implementations and adoptions of electric vehicles.
A growing demand for electric vehicles could also come from the updated gas mileage standards and permitted emissions levels adopted by the Biden administration in early August. These rules, in conjunction with potential tax credits, could help Biden achieve his goal of having U.S. car manufacturers allocate between 40 to 50 percent of their inventory for electric vehicles by 2030.
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