Elon Musk: 'High Production, Breakeven Cashflow' Will Be Rivian's True Test

Tesla CEO Elon Musk threw shade at Rivian on Thursday when he tweeted he hoped the automaker is able to “achieve high production and a breakeven cash flow,” and that accomplishing the feat would be “the true test.”

“There have been hundreds of automotive startups, both electric & combustion, but Tesla is [the] only American car maker to reach high volume production & positive cash flow in past 100 years,” Musk said on Twitter.

Rivian has 55,400 pre-orders for its R1S SUV and R1T pickup truck and a contract to build 100,000 cars with Amazon by 2030, according to the Wall Street Journal.

In its first two days of trading Rivian’s shares jumped 57% with a market value of more than $100 billion. Rivian began trading on Wednesday and closed 30% above its IPO price.

“We wanted to establish our brand by delivering a combination of efficiency, on-road performance, off-road capability, functional utility and product refinement that simply didn’t exist in the market,” Rivian CEO R.J. Scaringe told CNBC.

Rivian was founded in 2009 just six years after Tesla.