Rivian's R2 Is Already Its Best-Seller. Now It's Raising Its Sales Forecast Again

Rivian's Tesla Model Y rival is a hit among buyers, with Rivian increasing its annual delivery guidance again.

Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs

By: Suvrat Kothari

Oct 29, at 4:39pm ET

Comment

The R2 is already Rivian’s best-selling model just months after deliveries started, the California startup said in its third quarter earnings report Thursday. The midsize electric SUV already outsold the R1T, R1S, and its electric delivery van between July and September.

As a result, the company is now revising the baseline for its annual delivery target from 65,000-70,000 units to 67,000-70,000 units. After a record 19,751 deliveries in Q3, the company previously had already revised the baseline deliveries from 62,000 units to 65,000 units. Now that outlook is looking even more optimistic.

“We had great results with R2 becoming our best selling vehicle by volume in the third quarter," CEO RJ Scaringe said in a statement. "Customer and media feedback on R2 has been exceptional," he added.

Photo by: Mack Hogan/InsideEVs

Rivian's Q3 revenue grew 38% to $2.1 billion from the same period last year thanks to increase in deliveries, earnings from regulatory credits, and growth in its software and services division. Thanks to its partnership with the Volkswagen Group, its software and services revenue grew to 45% to $605 million. The startup is still not profitable though, reporting an operating loss of $881 million for the quarter, which is $102 million less year-over-year.

However, it's now hoping that the R2 will help with its turnaround. The Tesla Model Y rival is the company's make-or-break vehicle. The roll out of the R2 "must go well," Scaringe told InsideEVs in an episode of the Plugged-In Podcast last year. The electric SUV will not only help fund the development and production of future models like the R3 and R4, but also the company's burgeoning autonomy ambitions.

Rivian's Amazon Prime electric delivery vans.

What do you think?

View

Comments

The company is working to release a more advanced driver assistance system to rival Tesla's Full-Self Driving (Supervised) system under its Autonomy+ offering. Currently, Autonomy+ includes hands-free driving on highways and automatic lane changes on command. The more advanced version of this will include point-to-point autonomous driving on city streets as well, and a limited rollout of that is expected begin by the end of this year.

Rivian also plans to deliver up to 50,000 robotaxis to Uber starting in 2028. It recently acquired U.K.-based synthetic data startup Third Dimension to help with those efforts.