What happened
After a tumultuous year so far, Rivian Automotive (RIVN 6.10%) stock is making a stunning comeback. The elective vehicle (EV) stock jumped 13.1% in June, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence, but that rally may have confirmed its bottoming: Shares of Rivian have gained a whopping 56% this month so far as of this writing, taking their total gains since June up to almost 70%.
Did you miss the bottom in Rivian stock, or is this rally just getting started?
So what
June was a quiet month for Rivian stock until the company announced something big in the latter half: It said it will adopt Tesla's (TSLA -1.11%) North American Charging Standard and provide its customers access to Tesla's network of more than 12,000 Superchargers from 2024. It's a smart move, given that Tesla's charging network is also the largest in the U.S., and could therefore incentivize potential customers to buy Rivian's all-electric R1T pickup trucks and R1S SUVs that they may have not considered otherwise.
While investors cheered this move from Rivian, they eagerly awaited the company's latest delivery numbers to see if it was on track before betting more money on the stock. Rivian didn't disappoint: It produced 13,992 vehicles and delivered 12,640 vehicles during the quarter ended June 30.
Two things stood out: Rivian's deliveries jumped nearly 60% sequentially, and the gap between its production and deliveries had narrowed considerably in June, signaling an uptick in demand. Rivian also confirmed it's on track to deliver 50,000 vehicles this year.
But what's sending Rivian shares to the moon this month? Factors include multiple analyst upgrades on Rivian stock following strong delivery numbers, an update from e-commerce giant Amazon, and Rivian's pickup truck hitting a milestone not many expected to see.
So what
Last week, Amazon announced the launch of its custom Rivian electric delivery vans (EDV) in Europe, starting with Germany. Amazon, which is also an investor in Rivian, partnered with the EV maker in 2019 when it signed up for 100,000 EDVs by 2030.
So although this rollout of EDVs by Amazon isn't anything new for investors in Rivian, it marks Rivian's entry into Europe. More importantly, it puts to rest investors' concerns about Rivian's capability to deliver EDVs to Amazon, given its slow production rate over the past couple of years or so. Some even feared the partnership could be at stake, but that doesn't seem to be the case now.
With Rivian's R1T also emerging as the best-selling pickup truck in the U.S. in the first half of 2023, investors believe this is just the beginning of a bull run for the EV stock that's faced the market's wrath for a long time.
