Rivian's 2025 Deliveries Fall Y/Y: Will a Cheaper R2 Reignite Demand?

Rivian Automotive, Inc. RIVN, a California-based electric vehicle (EV) company, delivered 42,247 vehicles in 2025, down from 51,579 in 2024, while production totaled 42,284 units compared with 49,476 a year earlier. In the fourth quarter, the company produced 10,974 vehicles at its Normal, IL, plant and delivered 9,745 units. Both quarterly and full-year results were in line with Rivian’s expectations.

The broader auto industry has been grappling with slowing EV demand, partly due to the expiration of a $7,500 U.S. tax credit at the end of September, which pushed vehicle prices higher. For Rivian, which sells the premium-priced R1T pickup and R1S SUV, this backdrop has intensified questions around whether demand can hold up as production scales.

Rivian plans to address affordability with the R2, a model expected to be significantly cheaper than the R1T and R1S. The R2 platform is designed to expand Rivian’s reach into the mass market while preserving its core design and performance characteristics.

The company expects to begin saleable builds and initial deliveries of the R2 in the first half of 2026, though volumes will be limited early on. Production is set to ramp in the second half of the year, with output increasing through late 2026 and into 2027. By then, Rivian aims to fully optimize the Normal facility’s established annual capacity of about 215,000 units. RIVN carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) at present.

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Fourth-Quarter & Annual Deliveries of Other Automakers

Tesla, Inc. TSLA reported deliveries of more than 418,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2025 compared with over 495,000 units in the same period of 2024. Tesla’s production in the quarter totaled above 434,000 vehicles, down from 459,000 a year earlier. For the full year, Tesla delivered over 1,635,000 vehicles in 2025 versus more than 1,789,000 units in 2024.

BYD Company Limited BYDDY delivered 4.6 million vehicles in 2025, up 7.7% from 2024. The deliveries are in line with BYD’s revised full-year guidance issued in September. Sales were evenly split between fully electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, with nearly 2.3 million units sold in each category. BYD aims to increase its overseas sales to about 1.5-1.6 million vehicles in 2026, per a Citigroup Inc. report.

Rivian’s Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates  

Rivian has outperformed the Zacks Automotive-Domestic industry in the past six months. RIVN shares have gained 52.2% compared with the industry’s growth of 46.4%. 

 
From a valuation perspective, Rivian appears overvalued. Going by its price/sales ratio, the company is trading at a forward sales multiple of 3.52, above the industry’s 3.3.

EPS Estimates Revision

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 and 2026 loss per share has narrowed by a penny and widened by 11 cents, respectively, in the past 30 days. 

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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