Rivian's EV Sales Are Up Year-Over-Year Despite A Tough EV Market

Ford’s EV sales cratered in the first quarter, while Rivian saw a double-digit increase.

By: Iulian Dnistran

Apr 3, at 3:12am ET

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Rivian's EV deliveries rose 20% year over year in the first quarter.
It reported delivering 10,365 vehicles.
Ford’s U.S. EV sales nosedived 70% in the first quarter after canceling the F-150 Lightning.

Despite headwinds in the EV industry, Rivian's vehicle sales grew slightly in the first quarter. lFrom January through March, Rivian delivered 10,365 electric vehicles, marking a 20% year-over-year increase at a time when the entire American car industry is having a rough time.

The R2 is Rivian's most affordable model, with deliveries scheduled to begin soon.

Photo by: Patrick George

Rivian currently sells the R1S SUV, the R1T pickup truck, and the Commercial Van (RCV), and it’s gearing up for the first deliveries of the smaller and more affordable R2. The company does not publish individual sales numbers for each model.

Meanwhile, other automakers are seeing sales fall as they cull models and deal with the end of the EV tax credit. Ford's U.S. sales slid 9.2% in the first quarter, while its EVs declined 69.6%, going from 22,550 units last year to just 6,860 this year. BMW's U.S. "electrified" sales dropped by about half.

Rivian's numbers include some Canada sales, so these are not perfect apples-to-apples comparisons, mind you. But Rivian very likely did outsell Ford's EVs in the U.S. last quarter. And the numbers signal that Rivian is able to maintain last year's level of sales even in today's far choppier EV environment.

Things are looking good for Rivian. The company recently unlocked an additional $2 billion in investments from Uber and the Volkswagen Group, and is working to bring the mid-sized R2 SUV to its stores across the United States. In the near future, the California startup will expand its footprint, with the R2 expected to land in Europe and Asia after it hits American streets.

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Some 10,000 sales is decent for a startup. But Rivian is aiming higher than that. The next big question on the horizon: How many R2s can it sell this year, and can that vehicle take it to the next level?

[Updated 11:25 am ET: An earlier version of this story directly compared Ford and Rivian's EV sales figures. But Rivian's numbers include Canadian sales, while Ford's are U.S. only, and the story has been updated to reflect that. We regret the error.]