For anyone who has watched any edition of a motoring television show from as recently as ten years ago, the stellar progress made in the development of electric vehicles would be immediately apparent.

Ten years is not such a long time in the 135-year lifespan of the automotive industry. Car manufacturing could almost be viewed as a 'legacy' business these days, and is part of the traditional heavy engineering and manufacturing sector, therefore is reasonably conservative.

Apart from a few styling changes, and some incremental new advancements to safety features or electronic functions available within modern cars, the principle has not changed for many years.

Cars, until very recently, had an internal combustion engine, four wheels on synthetic rubber tyres, driveshafts, a transmission and were made largely of metal, therefore the basic ingredients and format have remained identical throughout the decades.

Electric cars were totally different to what the buying public perceived as 'normal' ones. They looked terrible, had tiny wheels, were the size of a baby's pram and had about as much style, were very slow and had awful battery ranges.

Elon Musk changed all that. When the Tesla Model S was released in 2014, it brought electric power into the mainstream. Effectively, a car which looks like a normal car and behaves like a normal car, with a decent range and lots of power.

The electric car phenomenon was born, and many of the traditional manufacturers jumped to work, and now there are hundreds of different fully electric and hybrid models of all makes and class of vehicle.

Electric cars are now the norm. There are even electric trucks. Ford has made a fully electric version of its best-selling F150, which is likely to take the US and Canada by storm.

But what about Rivian? Rivian is a pioneering electric vehicle manufacturer which is a newcomer to the automotive industry, and which specialises in electric pick-up trucks.

Rivian got off to an incredible start when it listed its stock in November last year on the NASDAQ exchange in an IPO which raised $12 billion for the company.

The electric car revolution has taken place and innovative makers that can show their leadership in this market are hot choices for investors.

However, Rivian's strong performance on the stock market has hit a weak point. At the end of the New York session yesterday, Rivian stock had reached its lowest point in six months, having fallen to $36.23 per share.

That is some 64% down compared to this time six months ago.

Over the past few days, Rivian stock has been slowly decreasing in value, until it suddenly dropped yesterday afternoon just fifteen minutes before the four o'clock bell.

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