Rivian sold Wall Street on an electric SUV. Then reality hit.

“The company has potential to change the EV and auto industry with much hype coming out of the gates, and instead has been a massive disappointment.”Frustrations aside, Ives is still bullish on the company, noting a lot of interest as expressed in the preorders.“This quarter was not without issues, but it does finally appear that Rivian is on the right track,” he wrote.The roller coaster ride for the Irvine-based start-up culminated in this past week’s staggering share price drop after Ford sold about 8 percent of its holdings, or 8 million shares, when the post-IPO lockup period expired.Ford still holds about 94 million shares. From January to March, the company produced 2,553 vehicles and delivered 1,227 to customers like Gibson.“We’ve seen really the worst of it, or sort of the valley if you will, of the supply constraints,” Scaringe said.Like other carmakers during the pandemic, Rivian has been hit with massive supply chain issues, increased material costs affecting battery production and logistical hurdles.But Jessica Caldwell, executive director of insights at Edmunds, noted that the shortages of semiconductors and microchips over the past year were particularly humbling for start-up carmakers.Although automakers and manufacturers in general have scrambled to deal with pandemic disruptions, it’s been that much harder for smaller companies like Rivian that are still trying to ramp up production.In addition to starting the process from scratch, a start-up wouldn’t necessarily have the clout or relationships with producers or the promise of large volumes of the more established players.“Production in general is largely underestimated — it almost bankrupted Tesla when they started to ramp up and try to go mass market,” Caldwell said.“For somebody like a Ford or Toyota, it could seem fairly easy and straightforward, but only because they’ve been doing it for decades,” she said.Meanwhile, another flashy EV maker bursting onto the scene, Lucid Group Inc., has suffered similar setbacks resulting in cutting production forecasts and also having to raise prices for its luxury sedans, which were originally poised to compete directly with Tesla.“A lot of start-up companies are going to realize that it’s pretty cool to create that concept and a niche vehicle that has low volumes, and is very expensive,” Caldwell said.