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Rivian, a new force in US carmaking, said on Oct. 7 that it would recall almost all sold cars because of possible loose fasteners that could cause drivers to lose steering control in extreme cases. Or affected by this, Rivian shares plunged more than 7% on the day.

According to foreign media reports, a spokesman for Rivian said in a statement that California-based Rivian found that the fasteners connected to the front control arm and steering knuckle in some vehicles may not be fully tightened, so it decided to recall about 13000 vehicles, covering almost all vehicles delivered since Rivian began production at its plant in Normal, Illinois, at the end of last year. Rivian produces only 14317 new cars.

So far, Rivian has received seven reports of the defects and has sent recall notices to relevant users. The company said it had not received any reports of injuries caused by the defects. RJ Scaringe, founder of Rivian, said in a letter to customers that the vehicle was recalled because the fasteners may not have enough torque and, in rare cases, the nuts may be completely loose. Although the problem was found in only seven vehicles, 13000 vehicles were recalled "out of caution". In response to the defective vehicles, Rivian said it expected the financial impact of the recall to be negligible and planned to inspect all recalled vehicles within 30 days.

The recall is voluntary and Rivian hopes to minimize potential risks, and officials have not yet disclosed details of the models involved in the problem. At present, Rivian has a total of three all-electric models: the R1T pickup, the R1s SUV and the custom-made EDV 700 minivans for Amazon. Rivian officially delivered the first vehicles in September 2021. According to the financial report, Rivian produced a total of 1015 vehicles and delivered 920 vehicles in 2021; as of the third quarter, Rivian2022 produced a total of 14317 new vehicles and delivered 12278 new vehicles, of which Rivian produced 2553, 4401 and 7363 vehicles respectively in the first and third quarters of this year, and delivered 1227, 4467 and 6584 new vehicles, respectively. The recall of about 13000 vehicles, that is, Rivian will recall almost all the vehicles that have been sold so far.

It should be noted that this is not the first time Rivian has conducted a recall this year. Rivian has recalled three times since it began mass production at the end of last year. In May, Rivian recalled about 500 vehicles because they could cause passenger airbags to fail, and in August, Rivian recalled 200 vehicles because some of their seat belts were improperly fastened.

Data show that Rivian was founded in 2009, headquartered in Irvine, California, was originally an American Mainstream Motors car manufacturer specializing in the development of sports cars, in 2010, the founder renamed Mainstream Motors to Rivian, and transferred from sports cars to pure electric pickups. At the 2018 Los Angeles Auto Show, Rivian launched pure electric pickup truck R1T and pure electric SUV R1S, in which pure electric pickup truck R1T was widely favored and invested by Ford, Amazon and other well-known companies, and Bezos personally promoted it. On November 1, 2021, Rivian was listed on NASDAQ with an issue price of $78. It once rose to $119.46 in intraday trading, closed at $100.73, with a total market value of $85.9 billion. Only two days after listing, the market value of Rivian once exceeded $100 billion, surpassing Ford and GM and other established car companies. But the good times did not last long. Due to the chaos of the supply chain, Rivian's production plan was disrupted, resulting in a rise in its production costs. Or as a result, Rivian shares are down more than 67% so far this year, with a market capitalization of just $31.1 billion as of Friday.

In fact, the timing of the recall comes at a critical moment for Rivan to speed up production. According to the annual production target previously announced by Rivian, Rivian will produce 25000 new vehicles in 2022, compared with 14317 in the first three quarters of this year, meaning Rivian needs to produce 10683 new vehicles in the fourth quarter to meet its full-year production target.

At present, Rivian has only one factory in Illinois, USA, with a planned production capacity of about 150000 vehicles. Rivian founder RJ Scaringe previously revealed in an interview that Rivian must grow rapidly to reach an annual production capacity of at least 1 million electric vehicles by 2030. In order to provide more production, Rivian's long-term plan is to build four assembly plants around the world, in addition to the existing plant in Normal, Illinois. A second factory will be built in the United States, with one in Europe and one in China.

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