Musk says high production, breakeven cash flow 'true test' for Rivian

Tesla Inc boss Elon Musk said on Thursday high production and breakeven cash flow will be the "true test" for Rivian Automotive Inc, a day after the electric vehicle maker's blockbuster market debut.

"There have been hundreds of automotive startups, both electric and combustion, but Tesla is [the] only American carmaker to reach high volume production & positive cash flow in past 100 years," Musk said in a tweet.

Rivian raised about $12 billion (roughly R183,576,000,000) in the world's biggest initial public offering this year, and its market valuation hit more than $100 billion (roughly R1,529,860,000,000) as shares surged, making it the second most valuable automaker in the United States after Tesla.

Rivian, which has just started selling its vehicles, was not immediately available for comment on Musk's tweet.

Musk was responding to one of his followers, pointing out that Tesla had been selling its Roadster model for over two years with plans to roll-out Model S when it went public over a decade ago.

Since the IPO, Tesla has ramped up production to deliver about 500,000 cars every year, with the company entering the trillion-dollar market value club last month.

Reuters