Yeah, that was a lot of the criticism of Tesla as well, as they raised a lot of money before getting into volume production.
Its to be expected, though, as the car business requires a lot of capital.
Its to be expected, though, as the car business requires a lot of capital.
Edit: founded in 2003-4, roadster came out in 2008
They managed to get a product out quickly. Rivian did not.
I'm not sure that this was actually better than the Rivian scenario, since Rivian actually has a van, truck, and a large SUV in the early stages of production during their first year. Its a pretty ambitious move, tbh.
Of course, Rivian has the advantage of being a second mover. Tesla had to work a lot harder to get the batteries sorted out back in 2007.
Which is not going into our pockets as employees.
Remember that, next time you ask for a raise.
And thus it's a bad business by definition, which doesn't merit billions of capital investments.
Even if the investment thesis is that the whole world is rooting for them, and government will turn lots of blind eyes because of the "green mission", and they'd be first in line ESG funds allocation of capital...
Still all those elements don't propel you to SaaS type margins such as Google or Microsoft or Facebook.
Frothy valuations for companies which are building stuff in the real world are driven by the promotional power of said stuff and the CEO marketing ability, in fact people are fascinated by cars, it looks cool and it's out there in front of you.
Its not an investment that I'd want to make. I'm glad that folks are trying anyway, though. I love cars and love the products, but I can't rationalize it as a great business to invest in.