Shares in Rivian Automotive Inc. dropped in late trading after the electric car maker reported lower-than-expected earnings and outlook in its first earnings report after going public in November.

For the quarter ended Dec. 31, Rivian reported a loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $1.108 billion, or $2.43 per share, compared with an adjusted loss of $341 million in the same quarter of last year. Revenue came in at $54 million based on the delivery of 909 vehicles.

Analysts had expected an adjusted loss of $2.06 per share on revenue of $63.99 million. The lower-than-expected results were blamed on COVID-19 and the weather, among other things.

“Through the first half of Q1 2022, we experienced several headwinds and other factors impacting our production ramp, including a planned 10-day shutdown to fine-tune our production lines, significant supply chain limitations, a large spike in COVID-19 cases likely attributable to the Omicron variant, and severe winter weather in Central Illinois,” Rivian said in a letter to shareholders.

For the full year 2021, Rivian reported a net loss of $4.688 billion, far higher than its net loss of $992 million in 2020. Revenue came in at $55 million based on the delivery of 920 vehicles. Rivian only started shipping vehicles in 2021.

The company did note that it had crossed several major milestones during 2021, including the start of deliveries of its three vehicles, the R1T, the R1S and the EDV. Rivian raised $13.7 billion in its initial public offering and selected a site for a second U.S. manufacturing plant just outside Atlanta, Georgia.

Looking forward, Rivian said that it expects to have an adjusted loss of $4.75 billion in 2022 and manufacture 25,000 vehicles. It would want to ramp up production, however: Through March 8 it had produced only 1,410 vehicles since the beginning of the year.

Reasons, or excuses, for poor performance were a theme throughout the letter to shareholders.

“Over the course of fiscal year 2022, we plan to remain focused on ramping up production of both the R1 and RCV lines in Normal, as well as investing in our technology and product portfolio for future growth,” Rivian said. “We believe that throughout 2022, the supply chain will be a fundamental limiting factor in our total output for the Normal Factory and that our manufacturing equipment and processes would have the ability to produce enough vehicles to deliver over 50,000 vehicles across our R1 and RCV platforms in 2022 if we were not constrained by our supply chain.”

Investors didn’t like the numbers. Rivian’s share price fell almost 13% after the bell. The stock is now down by nearly two-thirds since it floated in November and 78% from its peak in December.

Photo: Rivian