There's good news and bad news today for Rivian's second-quarter results: unlike many other automakers, deliveries weren't down from the first quarter. But they weren't amazing this time, either.
Still, the electric automaker beat its own expectations and posted its second straight quarter of sales increases for the year, although it started 2024 down from last year's record numbers.
For Q2, Rivian said it delivered 13,790 vehicles and produced 9,612. That's up slightly from Q1's 13,588 deliveries but down considerably from the 13,980 vehicles built during that quarter. Those results were somewhat expected; Rivian shut down its Normal, Illinois factory in April for four weeks for upgrades that are going into the updated 2025 R1S and R1T models. The company anticipated that this shutdown would be an issue later.
“From an investor perspective, the second quarter’s going to be messy,” founder and CEO RJ Scaringe warned at Bernstein's 40th Annual Strategic Decisions Conference earlier this year. “You won’t see many of those benefits until you get to the third quarter,” he added, referring to the plant's improvements.
Gallery: 2025 Rivian R1T and R1S
It's not immediately clear how many deliveries from Q2, which ended yesterday, included the new 2025 models. Customers have only just started receiving those models.
Rivian's Q2 result of 13,790 vehicles is down from the 13,972 delivered in Q4 2024, and way off the record 15,654 vehicles delivered in Q3 2024. Still, Q2's numbers represent a 9% jump from Q2 of last year, when Rivian reported 12,640 vehicles delivered.
Rivian EV Production - Q2 2024
Rivian EV Deliveries - Q2 2024
The California EV startup is attempting to cross the "Valley of Death," the gap between an automaker's costly early capital ramp-up and when it can reach profitable, mainstream volume sales. Right now, the only vehicles it sells are the R1S and R1T, which begin in the $70,000 range before any EV tax credits. It has smaller and more affordable EVs planned for subsequent years like the R2 and R3.
However, Rivian's still sitting on a large pile of cash and affirms it's targeting profitability with its current models this year. And it recently got a huge push in the form of an investment of up to $5 billion from the Volkswagen Group, wherein the two will form a joint venture to work on software and electrical architectures.
Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com
