Finimize - 😔 Rivian... is not Tesla

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Hi Reader, here's what you need to know for December 20th in 3:09 minutes.

☕️ Finimized over a cortado at Fábrica da Nata in Lisbon, Portugal (🌥 11°C/52°F)

Today's big stories

EV maker Rivian is expecting to miss its production target this year
Our latest Casual Investor Survey suggests you're seriously into crypto right now – Read Now
FedEx reported better-than-expected earnings, even with all these labor shortages

Honest Mistake

What’s Going On Here?

Rivian admitted late last week that it won’t hit its production targets for this year, as the electric vehicle (EV) maker realizes how much easier it is to say things than do them…

What Does This Mean?

Here’s the trouble with never having sold a single EV before this month: Rivian – which raised $12 billion in its initial public offering (IPO) last month – revealed in its first quarterly earnings update that it’s been struggling to produce enough EV batteries. Layer supply chain issues on top, and it’s expecting to fall “a few hundred” short of the 1,200 EVs it aimed to produce this year. And while the company still thinks it can fulfill its 170,000 existing orders by the end of 2023, it did concede that any new ones would probably get delivered the following year. So it’s all hands on deck: the EV-maker’s been on a hiring spree, and said it’d spend $5 billion on a new plant that could produce 400,000 EVs a year from 2024. Those costs didn’t appeal much either: investors initially sent its stock down 10%.

Why Should I Care?

For markets: Bless ‘em.
Rivian is still worth more than both General Motors and Ford, mind you. That has to hurt: they made $27 billion and $33 billion in sales respectively last quarter, which is – … carry the one… – $27 billion and $33 billion more than Rivian. Analysts reckon it’s because investors expect Rivian to pull a Tesla, but those are some big tire tracks to fill.

The bigger picture: Ford talks to the hand.
If Rivian’s the TikTok star saying it’ll be bigger than the Beatles, Ford is the backwards cap-sporting geriatric promising to be BTS: the carmaking stalwart said last week that it’s aiming to eventually overtake Tesla’s EV sales. Take a chill pill: Tesla has already produced well over 600,000 EVs this year, and Ford’s not expecting to get jiggy with that number until 2024.

You might also like: Do the auto industry’s experts think Rivian’s all that?

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Analyst Take

Boy Do You Folks Love Crypto…

Andrew, Analyst

Our Casual Investor Survey is an end-of-quarter mainstay now, and with good reason.

The findings give you a chance to see where your fellow Finimizers’ heads are, so you can either swim with or swim against the tide.

And there have been big changes even in the last few months, with just 6% of you now expecting the economy to be stronger this time next year – down from 28% in September.

And while last quarter’s big concern Evergrande has slipped off the list of biggest concerns, Covid is climbing back up the ranks as Omicron sweeps the world.

The only thing that seems to be keeping you cool, calm, and collected now is – yep – cryptocurrencies.

So that’s today’s Insight: a deepdive into the results of our latest Casual Investor survey, and why you believe crypto will see you through.

Read or listen to the Insight here

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