Shares: On the way to the world’s first electric pickup!

On Friday, Rivian announced that it had completed a $ 2.5 billion financing round led by existing investors Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) and T. Rowe Price (NASDAQ: TROW). Also last week, Rivian announced plans to build a second assembly plant in the US to begin production of its all-electric pickup and SUV.

Previous investments

In January, Rivian completed a $ 2.65 billion investment round. It raised another $ 2.5 billion last July. It raised $ 1.3 billion in December 2019 and at least $ 1.5 billion before that. To date, the EV startup has raised around $ 10.5 billion. The fresh part of the financing will flow into the expansion of new vehicles, the expansion of the domestic locations and the global market launch of the products.

The electric pickup

Production of the electric pickup and SUV is slated to begin at the existing plant in Normal, Illinois. Two weeks ago, however, the startup announced that delivery of the R1T pickup will be delayed until September, while the R1S SUV will not arrive until later in the fall. Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe blamed a number of issues related to the pandemic, including facility construction, equipment installation and vehicle component shortages as the industry grapples with semiconductor shortages. Even General Motors (NYSE: GM) was recently forced to halt most of North American production of its profitable full-size pickup trucks due to the ongoing global semiconductor die shortage. The production of the highly anticipated cybertruck from Tesla Inc.(NASDAQ: TSLA) has been postponed to 2022 due to disruptions in the supply chain. The delays for retail customers, however, have not affected Rivian’s plans to provide electric delivery vehicles to his partner and investor Amazon.

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The solar powered pickup

The upcoming Atlis XT electric pickup and the Alpha electric pickup, which are being built by Hercules Electric Mobility Inc. in partnership with b (OTC: NSANF) and Atlis Motor Vehicles, will be supplemented by the TerraVis solar charging system. The TerraVis Tonneau Cover System is a recently introduced amalgamation of cutting edge solar energy, storage and delivery, developed by the revolutionary and already established tonneau cover manufacturer Worksport Ltd (OTC: WKSP). The prototype will be fine-tuned and validated with the expertise of Ontario Tech University by the end of the year, with production expected to begin in 2022.

Auto industry continues to poach tech executives

GM has executives from Nio Inc (NYSE: NIO) and Lyft Inc (NASDAQ: LYFT) to support its connected, autonomous, and electrical transformation. Stellantis (NYSE: STLA) has Ned Curic, Amazon’s vice president for Alexa Automotive, who previously worked at Toyota Motor (NYSE: TM) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has worked as its first chief technology officer.

Although the exact date of the world’s first electric pickup is not yet known and the winner of the race has not yet been determined, it is already more than clear that it will be a technologically majestic vehicle that will be launched on the market in various body shapes should come.