Elon Musk Has Harsh Predictions For 2 EV Makers: Could Bankruptcy Be In Their Future?

Elon Musk had a dire warning for two automakers in the electric vehicle industry, predicting that “they will both go bankrupt” unless they make some significant changes.

Musk made the comments during an interview with the Tesla Silicon Valley Owners Club at Tesla’s (TSLA) Gigafactory Texas, saying that two U.S.-based rival EV startups “are tracking toward bankruptcy.”

He said: “Unless something changes significantly with Rivian and Lucid, they will both go bankrupt.”

The Tesla CEO continued: “I hope they can do something, but unless they can cut their cost dramatically, they are in deep trouble and will end up in the car cemetery like every other with the exception of Tesla and Ford.”

Musk failed to mention EV rivals GM and Stellantis in his comments.

The warning from Musk comes as Rivian announced to some customers that it will delay delivery of its R1S electric SUV to August or September or as late as October through December, Auto Evolution reported. The seven-passenger SUV was slated to deliver to customers that had preordered the EV in June or July, Engadget said.

The R1S was first set to be delivered in August 2021 and has been delayed multiple times, with Rivian citing production and supply issues as the reasons for the push back of the delivery date.

Musk told Tesla Silicon Valley Owners Club that his “advice to Rivian would be to cut costs immediately across the board dramatically or they are doomed.”

He also commented on Rivian’s recent price increase of its EVs, saying that when you increase the price of your vehicles, you “reduce the number of people who can afford the vehicles exponentially.”

Rivian also reported a loss of $1.5 billion for Q1 2022. However, it did have over $16 billion cash on hand at the end of the quarter.

As for Lucid, the company had $5.4 billion cash on hand at the end of the first quarter of 2022. At the same time, the EV maker announced that it raised prices across most of its vehicles by about 10% at the start of June 1.

As of Wednesday at 7:33 a.m. ET, shares of Tesla were trading at $668.00, up $5.33 or 0.80%.