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Tesla recently took out a revolving credit agreement with several major banks, with capacity to borrow up to $750 million as needed for general corporate purposes. Company assets have been pledged as collateral for the majority of the credit line. The announcement came three days after current finance chief Deepak Ahuja said he would retire, pending the naming of his successor.

Mr. Ahuja’s successor will likely need to make use of the new funding. Auto manufacturing is capital intensive, especially when developing a new type of car, so spending money is nothing new for Tesla. In its history as a public company, Tesla’s capital expenditures have outpaced its operating cash flow, adjusted for changes in working capital, by a cumulative $2.7 billion, according to FactSet.

Tesla’s spending has increased just as rapidly as its ambitions.


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To meet these longer-term goals, however, Tesla will need a lot of cash.

On Tuesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that his electric car company had been about a month away from bankruptcy in recent years when it was still figuring out how to mass produce the Model 3 electric sedan.

In the middle of a discussion about Tesla’s fundraising history, a follower asked, “How close was Tesla from bankruptcy when bringing the Model 3 to mass production?”

Musk replied: “Closest we got was about a month. The Model 3 ramp was extreme stress & pain for a long time — from mid-2017 to mid-2019. Production & logistics hell.”

Musk has often spoken about what he calls the “production and logistics hell” of taking a new electric vehicle into high-volume manufacturing. However, Musk and the company had never disclosed exactly how little runway they had before facing a possible bankruptcy.

Rivian Holder Abdul Latif Jameel Says ‘No Plans’ to Reduce Stake

May 9, 2022

Abdul Latif Jameel, the third-largest shareholder of Rivian Automotive Inc., has no plans to sell down its stake in the EV-maker after a lockup on the stock expired Sunday.

Jameel, a Jeddah, Saudi Arabia-based group, holds almost 114 million shares through a subsidiary called Global Oryx Co., according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“We stand firmly behind Rivian and its management. As of today we have no plans of selling any shares,” an Abdul Latif Jameel spokesperson said by email.

Jameel, which operates businesses ranging from transportation and engineering to health and real estate, trails only Amazon.com Inc., which owns more than 158 million shares, and T. Rowe Price, with 162.2 million shares, among Rivian investors.

Vehicle reservations: Over 90,000, up from 83,000 as of Rivian's last update in March.

Edmunds says the F-150 XL Regular cab is one of the most popular versions. It starts at $28,940 with the 6.5-foot bed or $29,240 for the 8-foot bed. The Regular cab is the smallest and seats three.

The F-150 has several different trim levels and we will delve deeper into those later this week but we wanted to focus on the most popular option today. The XLT 302a package is the most popular 2017 F-150 package. It accounts for nearly 50% of Ford’s F-150 sales which is why we want to inform Kansas Ford Truck buyers on this package!

If you want the cheapest, most basic Ford Lightning model, take a look at the 2022 Ford Lightning Pro. The Lightning Pro price starts at $41,669, and according to Edmunds, is the most popular trim level.

We expect the XLT to be the most popular F-150 Lightning trims, partly because of its low price and impressive standard equipment. Lightning XLT gets you more standard convenience and comfort features

Rivian is losing its head of manufacturing engineering at a critical time. The company is trying to sustainably ramp up the production of its R1T electric pickup truck as it reorganizes its leadership.

Charly Mwangi has been a longtime automotive engineer. Mwangi rose to the level of senior director of engineering at Tesla during his six-year tenure at the company and has been executive vice president in charge of manufacturing engineering at Rivian since 2020.

In an email obtained by Bloomberg, Rivian CEO R.J. Scaringe confirmed that Mwangi is leaving and that the company’s leadership is undergoing a reorganization. Most notably in the reorganization, Rivian will bring on Frank Klein, a former Magna executive, as chief operating officer (COO) – most of the top manufacturing leadership will now report to him.

Scaringe wrote in the email:

This is an important time for our growing business, all of which is happening in an extremely challenging environment. We are well-positioned for long-term success, but we must continuously evaluate how we operate.

Another important part of the reorganization is the splitting of Rivian’s commercial business, which mainly consists of its electric van for Amazon, and its retail business, which consists of the R1T electric pickup truck and R1S electric SUV.

The reorganization comes as Rivian is ramping up production of those vehicles but not without issues. The company has already reduced its guidance for production this year due to supply chain issues.

Last quarter, Rivian produced 2,553 electric vehicles and delivered 1,227 of them. It is currently losing a lot of money on those vehicles during the production ramp-up. Right now, Rivian is in a race to continue increasing production to satisfy demand while trying to improve its gross margin to produce the EVs profitably and stop hemorrhaging money.

Rivian Cranked Up Production in Second Quarter at Illinois Factory

July 6, 2022

Rivian Automotive Inc. said it produced 4,401 vehicles in the second quarter, the latest in the electric-vehicle maker’s efforts to overcome parts shortages and production snarls to fulfill orders for waiting customers.

Rivian’s second-quarter production figures, released Wednesday morning in a regulatory filing, are a sharp increase over the 2,553 vehicles it manufactured in the first three months of 2022. The company also said it delivered 4,467 vehicles to customers, compared with 1,227 vehicles in the previous quarter.

Rivian reiterated that it was on track to hit its target of producing 25,000 vehicles this year -- a goal that would require it to manufacture 9,000 vehicles in each of the final two quarters of 2022.

The results beat expectations. Analysts at RBC Capital Markets had forecast production of 3,400 vehicles for the second quarter.

Rivian Plans Hundreds of Job Cuts Following Surge in Staffing

July 11, 2022

Rivian Automotive Inc. is planning hundreds of layoffs to trim its workforce in areas where the electric-vehicle maker has grown too quickly, according to people familiar with the matter.

The cuts will focus on nonmanufacturing roles, including teams with duplicate functions, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. The actions could be announced in the coming weeks, the people said.

The company, which has more than 14,000 employees, could target an overall reduction of around 5%, the people said. The layoffs are still in the planning stage and nothing has been decided. Rivian has operations in California, Michigan and Illinois, where its plant operates, as well as a presence in the UK and Canada.

The company is pulling back after roughly doubling its headcount over the past year to support a ramp-up in production.

The Irvine, California-based manufacturer is poised to join companies across corporate America pruning their operations amid growing worries about an economic downturn. Tesla is cutting 10% of its salaried workforce, while protecting manufacturing jobs, after Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said he sees a recession as inevitable.