Rivian CEO sees ‘very clear’ set of steps to profitability after Q3 EV delivery beat
As EV deliveries pick up, Rivian’s (RIVN) CEO RJ Scaringe says the company is seeing significant progress in lowering costs. As losses improve, Rivian’s leader explained, “We will see a very clear” set of steps toward profitability.
Scaringe made the comments Tuesday morning in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” explaining the EV maker’s production ramp and improving financials.
The interview comes a day after Rivian beat expectations, delivering 15,564 electric vehicles in Q3. Rivian’s Q3 deliveries improved 24% from last quarter’s total of 12,640.
Rivian also produced 16,304 EVs during the quarter, up 17% from 13,992 in Q2. As the startup better leverages its Normal, Illinois facility, Rivian believes it can make a profit on each vehicle made by the end of next year.
Although the company’s growing deliveries are getting all the attention, many want to know when Rivian will turn a profit.
Rivian’s average transaction price is over $80,000 per vehicle, yet the company is still losing money on each car built.
Many reports have been quick to point out that Rivian lost $32,595 on each vehicle it made in Q2, but this is still a 50% improvement from Q1’s loss per vehicle of $67,329.
Is Rivian on the road to profitability?
Scaringe has previously said he sees Rivian reaching a break-even point on each EV built by the end of next year. Reaffirming these comments, Scaringe told CNBC the company is seeing significant progress quarter over quarter.
He added, “What we’re going to see is a very clear staircase or set of steps that get us to profitability as a business.”
Rivian’s production ramp is the foundational piece to achieving profitability. After beating Q3 expectations, Rivian confirmed it’s on track to reach its 52,000 annual production guidance.
The introduction of its in-house Enduro drive units and LFP battery packs have been a key enabler of the recent production ramp.
Rivian ended the second quarter with around $9.2 billion in cash and equivalents, which will help fund its production ramp. When asked if the company will need to raise funds before introducing its next-gen R2 products, Scaringe said Rivian is focused on efficiently deploying capital and is “very comfortable with the fact that we’ve maintained a strong balance sheet.”
Scaringe reiterated that he does not see customer overlap with Tesla’s Cybertruck and the Rivian R1T. Instead, “it’s really important to have choice, to have selection, to have variety,” as Scaringe explained.
Electrek’s Take
With production and deliveries improving again quarter over quarter, Rivian will likely see another gross margin improvement.
Another 50% improvement would be impressive, suggesting an around $16,300 loss per vehicle. However, production and deliveries also grew 50% and 60%, respectively, in Q2.
In the third quarter, Rivian production and deliveries advanced 17% and 24%. Meanwhile, the company is leveraging fixed costs, improving efficiency with in-house components, and working to reduce operation costs.
We’ll learn more about Rivian’s financial situation and when we can expect the EV maker to reach turn profitable on November 7, when Rivian releases its Q3 earnings report.
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If you’ve ever wondered what happens when you combine a fruit cart, a cargo bike, and a Piaggio Ape all in one vehicle, now you’ve got your answer. I submit, for your approval, this week’s feature for the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column – and it’s a beautiful doozie.
Feast your eyes on this salad slinging, coleslaw cruising, tuber taxiing produce chariot!
I think this electric vegetable trike might finally scratch the itch long felt by many of my readers. It seems every time I cover an electric trike, even the really cool ones, I always get commenters poo-poo-ing it for having two wheels in the rear instead of two wheels in the front. Well, here you go, folks!
Designed with two front wheels for maximum stability, this trike keeps your cucumbers in check through every corner. Because trust me, you don’t want to hit a pothole and suddenly be juggling peaches like you’re in Cirque du Soleil: Farmers Market Edition.
To avoid the extra cost of designing a linked steering system for a pair of front wheels, the engineers who brought this salad shuttle to life simply side-stepped that complexity altogether by steering the entire fixed front end. I’ve got articulating electric tractors that steer like this, and so if it works for a several-ton work machine, it should work for a couple hundred pounds of cargo bike.
Featuring a giant cargo bed up front with four cascading fruit baskets set up for roadside sales, this cargo bike is something of a blank slate. Sure, you could monetize grandma’s vegetable garden, or you could fill it with your own ideas and concoctions. Our exceedingly talented graphics wizard sees it as the perfect coffee and pastry e-bike for my new startup, The Handlebarista, and I’m not one to argue. Basically, the sky is the limit with a blank slate bike like this!
Sure, the quality doesn’t quite match something like a fancy Tern cargo bike. The rim brakes aren’t exactly confidence-inspiring, but at least there are three of them. And if they should all give out, or just not quite slow you down enough to avoid that quickly approaching brick wall, then at least you’ve got a couple hundred pounds of tomatoes as a tasty crumple zone.
The electrical system does seem a bit underpowered. With a 36V battery and a 250W motor, I don’t know if one-third of a horsepower is enough to haul a full load to the local farmer’s market. But I guess if the weight is a bit much for the little motor, you could always do some snacking along the way. On the other hand, all the pictures seem to show a non-electric version. So if this cart is presumably mobile on pedal power alone, then that extra motor assist, however small, is going to feel like a very welcome guest.
The $950 price is presumably for the electric version, since that’s what’s in the title of the listing, though I wouldn’t get too excited just yet. I’ve bought a LOT of stuff on Alibaba, including many electric vehicles, and the too-good-to-be-true price is always exactly that. In my experience, you can multiply the Alibaba price by 3-4x to get the actual landed price for things like these. Even so, $3,000-$4,000 wouldn’t be a terrible price, considering a lot of electric trikes stateside already cost that much and don’t even come with a quad-set of vegetable baskets on board!
I should also put my normal caveat in here about not actually buying one of these. Please, please don’t try to buy one of these awesome cargo e-trikes. This is a silly, tongue-in-cheek weekend column where I scour the ever-entertaining underbelly of China’s massive e-commerce site Alibaba in search of fun, quirky, and just plain awesomely weird electric vehicles. While I’ve successfully bought several fun things on the platform, I’ve also gotten scammed more than once, so this is not for the timid or the tight-budgeted among us.
That isn’t to say that some of my more stubborn readers haven’t followed in my footsteps before, ignoring my advice and setting out on their own wild journey. But please don’t be the one who risks it all and gets nothing in return. Don’t say I didn’t warn you; this is the warning.
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Environment
Podcast: Trump/GOP go after EV/solar, Tesla, Ford, GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more
In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss Trump’s Big Beautiful bill becoming law and going after EVs and solar, Tesla, Ford, and GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more
Today’s episode is brought to you by Bosch Mobility Aftermarket—A global leader and trusted provider of automotive aftermarket parts. To celebrate Amazon Prime Day July 8th through 11th, Bosch Mobility is offering exclusive savings on must-have auto parts and tools. Learn more here.
The show is live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel.
As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in.
After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps:
We now have a Patreon if you want to help us avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming.
Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast:
- Electrek FSGP 2025: New teams, new cars, same solar spirit
- Congress votes to send 2 million US jobs to China, increase deficit, energy costs
- Tesla (TSLA) confirms 384,000 deliveries in Q2 2025, right on expectations
- Tesla prototype sparks speculation: a Model Y, maybe slightly smaller
- Tesla launches Oasis Supercharger with solar farm and off-grid batteries
- Tesla unveils its LFP battery factory, claims it’s almost ready
- Here’s why Ford’s electric vehicle sales crashed by nearly a third in Q2
- The Chevy Equinox EV is GM’s breakout star, but that’s not the only surprise
- Xpeng launches G7, a new Tesla Model Y competitor for just $27,000
Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4:00 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET:
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