Rivian Automotive, Inc.

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Rivian First Quarter 2024 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question, you will need to press star 1-1. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your host, Tim Bay, Vice President of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Good afternoon and thank you for joining us for Rivian's first quarter 2024 earnings call. Before we begin, matters discussed on this call, including comments and responses to questions, reflect management's views as of today. We will also be making statements related to our business operations and financial performance that may be considered forward-looking statements under federal securities laws. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties are described in our SEC filings and today's shareholder letter. During this call, we will discuss both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures is provided in our shareholder letter. Just before the call, we published our shareholder letter, which includes an overview of our progress over the recent months. I encourage you to read it for additional details around some of the items we'll cover on today's call. With that, I'll turn the call over to RJ, who will begin with a few opening remarks.

Thanks, Tim. Hello, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. During our call, I will highlight key developments in the first quarter and provide an update on the expected progress we're making against our value drivers. First quarter results exceeded our outlook and set a strong foundation for the remainder of the year as we focus on continued demand generation, delivering cost and plan efficiency improvements, advancing R2 development, and driving towards profitability. We continue to make strong progress across each of these goals. Before discussing key developments during the quarter, I want to congratulate the team on producing our 100,000th vehicle at our plant in Normal and successfully navigating our plant retooling upgrade. While we focus on the work ahead, it's incredible to see what our team has accomplished across our consumer and commercial vehicle platforms. I also want to highlight the uniqueness of what we're building at Rivian. We have developed a technology platform and brand that are truly differentiated. Our vertically integrated hardware and software capabilities enable continuous enhancements to the product. Our ability to improve and add features across autonomy, battery management, digital experience, body control, vehicle dynamics, and telematics help deliver an elevated ownership experience for both our consumer and commercial offerings. We also recently transitioned to a new zonal network architecture, which reduced the number of electronic control units in our vehicle by approximately 60%, taking substantial costs out of our vehicles. The feedback on our products have been incredible. Since the start of production, we've introduced approximately 30 over-the-air updates, and through an owner satisfaction survey conducted by Consumer Reports, Rivian was recognized as the number one automotive brand with the highest likelihood for customers to purchase again. In launching the R1 platform, our goal was to create a brand that deeply resonates with customers. During the first quarter of 2024, Rivian was the fifth best-selling EV maker in the United States with a market share of 5.1%. Our vehicles have driven more than 900 million cumulative miles, and our brand awareness and market position continues to grow. Additionally, the R1T is the only pickup in the United States to receive the Top Safety Pick Plus Award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Building on this, the results of our recently implemented demand generation and brand awareness strategies have been encouraging. We hosted over 28,000 demo drivers in the first quarter of 2024, an increase of 90% versus the fourth quarter of 2023. We recently launched R1S leasing and grew the number of states with this offering. While the broader vehicle market is still experiencing challenges, we are encouraged by the early results of our initiatives and have confidence in our 2024 delivery outlook. In March, we unveiled our new midsize platform, which underpins the R2, R3, and R3X products. It is great to see the outstanding support for our brand and upcoming products. R2 is our versatile new midsize SUV with room for five people. It captures the essence of Rivian. It's built for adventures as well as everyday use with its exceptional utility, performance, and capability. We expect the price to start at $45,000, with delivery slated to begin in the first half of 2026. R3 is our midsize crossover. This unique vehicle is tidy in dimensions, but delivers big in terms of performance, passenger comfort, and storage. R3X is a performance variant of R3, offering even more dynamic abilities both on and off-road. R3 demonstrates the scalability of Rivian across different form factors and segments. It will be priced below R2, and deliveries will start after R2 to ensure smooth, launch, and rapid ramp. With these new products, our goal is to take the desirability and brand strength we've established for our R1 products, with the R1S remaining the best-selling EV over $70,000 in the United States, and translate this strength to a much larger addressable market. Our midsize platform leverages key technologies developed for R1, including our in-house software, in-vehicle electronics, propulsion and battery technology, and our high-voltage platform's with a goal to deliver dramatically simplified and lower-cost vehicles relative to R1. Our massive focus on cost and efficient manufacturing for R2 and R3 is achieved by deeply analyzing every system and associated component and asking if it can be simplified or if there are opportunities for part consolidation or elimination. Use of large high-pressure die castings In the body structure, a structural battery pack whereby the top of the battery is the floor of the vehicle, further simplification of the electrical system, and associated wiring harness through a focus on electronic control unit design topology are just a few examples of how we are using innovation to drive down cost. Beyond engineering opportunities, when compared to R1, R2 also has significant cost opportunities through competitive sourcing. At the unveil of R2, We announced accelerating the start of production in the first half of 2026 and reducing our capital needs for the launch of R2 by starting production of R2 in our normal plant. This will provide flexibility to manufacture an estimated 215,000 total annual units per year, which includes up to 155,000 units of R2. Starting R2 production in normal is expected to save over $2.25 billion between now and the start of production as compared to the original plan of launching the first line of R2 production at Rivian's Georgia site. Incremental to the $2.25 billion in expected savings, we recently announced an incentive package from the state of Illinois with a value of up to $827 million. We're excited to grow our community to normal and continue our partnership with the state of Illinois. Turning to our recent tooling upgrades in our normal facility, The team made meaningful progress, and we're now back to producing R1 vehicles on our production line. The upgrade introduced new technologies and cost-focused material changes into the R1 vehicle platform. The plant retooling upgrade also provided the opportunity to improve manufacturing processes that enable the R1 line to run at approximately a 30% higher line rate. In addition, we improved the flow of materials and inventory in the plant. These changes are expected to improve cycle time, utilization, and cost. The opportunity ahead is significant. We hold the deep conviction that the entire automotive industry will electrify over the long term, and we continue to take the necessary steps to best position Rivian as a leader in this transition. We look forward to sharing more details around our strategy, progress, and outlook in late June when we host our Investor Day. I'd like to thank all those who continue to support our vision, including employees, customers, partners, suppliers, communities, and shareholders. With that, I'll pass the call to Claire.