Welcome to today's edition of the Daily 5.
The red ink flowed again for two of the leading non-Tesla electric vehicle makers during the third quarter. Rivian Automotive Inc. posted a $1.1 billion net loss in the quarter while luxury EV competitor Lucid Group Inc. said its third-quarter net loss widened to $950 million.
The numbers weren't pretty for either company, but both showed evidence to Wall Street that better times are coming. Rivian, which has been struggling for months with production problems stemming from supply chain drama, said it stands to gain some $300 million from the sale of regulatory credits to automakers needing them for emissions compliance. The company still has plenty of cash, about $5.4 billion, to overcome near-term challenges.
"This has been a tough quarter for us because of some of the supplier-ramp challenges," CEO RJ Scaringe said on the Thursday earnings call.
Lucid spun a little more optimism in its report as its revenue gained traction, rising 45 percent to $200 million. Despite the cash burn, Wall Street pushed up the shares in after-hours trading.
"We continue to see improvements to gross margin performance as our cost reduction efforts are gaining momentum," interim CFO Gagan Dhingra said in a report from Reuters.
Lucid on Thursday also started taking orders for its highly anticipated Gravity crossover, which won't start production until late in 2025.
Meanwhile, in our ongoing coverage of the transition to a second Trump administration, Hans Greimel today gave us this in-depth analysis of how five Japanese automakers stack up in their U.S. business road maps with the prospect of new tariffs hitting their bottom lines. Surprisingly, it's not just about importing cars from Japan. It's just as much about supply chains.
Speaking of supply chains, two more Michigan-based global suppliers posted their results today and both of them grappled with lower automotive production than anticipated. American Axle & Manufacturing swung to a $10 million profit after being in the red during the same quarter last year. Revenue dropped 3 percent to $1.5 billion, but the drivetrain components maker cut expenses by $87 million.
Seating supplier Adient said net income fell 41 percent to $79 million while revenue slipped 4.5 percent to $3.6 billion. On an adjusted basis, earnings improved slightly.
Looking ahead to Saturday, we'll have the next installment in our ongoing Best Practices feature with a story about an Illinois dealership paying its staff to take CPR training.
And of course, we'll continue to cover the massive changes ahead for the auto industry as the new Trump administration takes office.
That's it for today. Have a great weekend!
If you want to view this story in your browser, click here.
— Philip Nussel, online editor
