Ford Sells More Rivian Shares, Stake Plummets To Just 1.15 Percent

According to recent regulatory filings, Ford Motor Company has once again sold shares of its stake in electric automaker Rivian. The most recent transaction brings Ford's stake to just 1.15 percent, down from a 12-percent stake on its original $500 million investment.

It's been a wild ride for Rivian's stock since its initial public offering on November 9, 2021. Before the IPO, the company priced 153 million shares at $78 a share to raise $11.9 billion. The IPO was considerably more successful than anticipated, with shares quickly rising to over $100 per share and eventually topping out at $179.47 per share. Then the wheels fell off; Rivian's stock price now sits at just $18.85 at the time of this writing.

What happened? InsideEVs editors are bullish about the company's products, which include the R1T truck, R1S SUV, and Amazon delivery van.

Unfortunately, Rivian has hit many roadblocks, which includes scaling back its initial production estimates for 2022 and then missing that recalibrated target. The automaker also suffered an embarrassing recall that affected nearly every vehicle it had sold – more than 12,000 at the time. And lastly, Ford itself put Rivian's future into question when it cancelled plans to develop vehicles together. 

This is not the first time Ford has sold shares of Rivian to recoup some of its losses. In May of 2022, Ford sold 15 million shares and reduced its initial stake of 11.7 percent to 9.4 percent. 

Rivian Reduction:

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Amazon, meanwhile, which is another one of Rivian's big corporate investors, has decided to ride out the storm with Rivian; it hasn't sold a single share of its original 18-percent stake in the company and continues to add more units of the all-electric Rivian delivery van to its delivery fleet. 

It's unknown if Ford will eventually reduce its stake in Rivian to nothing and part ways entirely with the EV startup. Even if they remain connected by Ford's remaining stake, though, these two automakers will inevitably meet on the battlefield of the marketplace, staring each other down with competing EV products.