Welcome to today's edition of the Daily 5.
Rivian Automotive Inc. joined the ongoing drumbeat of bad news for electric vehicles with a bearish forecast, disappointing third-quarter sales and falling share prices.
"Rivian is experiencing a production disruption due to a shortage of a shared component on the R1 and RCV platforms," the EV maker said in a statement today. "This supply shortage impact began in Q3 of this year, has become more acute in recent weeks and continues."
This means Rivian's full-year production will end up between 47,000 and 49,000 vehicles instead of its forecast 57,000.
Rivian stock took a beating. See the chart below.
But next week, we're going to hear a lot of good things about the future for EVs and their all-important battery technologies.
Our preview of The Battery Show in Detroit, happening Oct. 7-10, looks at some of the exciting technologies that will be on display.
On a related topic, we also published a compelling guest commentary today by Siva Sivaram, CEO of QuantumScape, about the safety of EVs versus traditional internal combustion engine vehicles. He cites research showing gasoline cars are 60 times more likely to catch fire than electric vehicles.
And major news broke as the European Union moved to impose new tariffs on electric vehicles built in China. Negotiations will continue. The EU decision faced opposition from at least five member states, and several others abstained, according to our story. Volkswagen, Mercedes and BMW were opposed.
Meanwhile, the news from Stellantis never stops.
CEO Carlos Tavares and Renault CEO Luca de Meo on Thursday both discounted a new round of "rumors" about merger talks.
Back in the U.S., the UAW on Thursday held another rally in the Detroit area with threats to strike Stellantis over its alleged lack of compliance with terms of the 2023 national contract.
But the union also is making some early noise about striking the General Motors plant in Fort Wayne, Ind. It's too early to tell whether the strike threat is serious.
Looking ahead to Saturday — a business day for most of our dealership audience — we'll have a story from our Best Practices series about an innovative way a Subaru store builds showroom traffic on Fridays.
That's it for today. Have a great weekend!
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— Philip Nussel, online editor
