Rivian (RIVN) shares hit a new yearly low on Monday, dropping nearly 10%. Despite achieving its first gross profit in Q4, Rivian’s stock is taking a beating due to mixed analyst opinions. Here’s what they’re saying.

Last week, Rivian released its fourth quarter 2024 earnings, announcing a gross profit of $170 million. Although still a relatively small number, it’s a massive $776 million improvement from Q4 2023 and Rivian’s first positive gross profit.

After shutting down its manufacturing plant in Normal, IL, last April for upgrades and launching its second-generation R1 vehicles, CEO RJ Scaringe said the company is seeing “meaningful” cost reductions.

“This quarter, we achieved positive gross profit and removed $31,000 in automotive cost of goods sold per vehicle delivered in Q4 2024 relative to Q4 2023,” Scaringe explained last week after releasing fourth-quarter earnings.

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Rivian built 49,476 vehicles last year and delivered 51,579. In 2025, the company expects slightly fewer deliveries, projecting between 46,000 and 51,000 due to external factors, including changing government policies. It also expects lower EDV deliveries for Amazon after higher output in Q4.

Some Wall St analysts are also concerned about policy changes under the Trump Administration. On Monday, Bank of America analysts downgraded Rivian stock to an Underperform rating from Neutral following its Q4 results.

The analysts also cut Rivian’s stock price target to $10 from $13, saying the 2025 delivery forecast was “softer than expected” and “there could be more downside risk if policy changes are enacted.”

Rivian stock hit with a downgrade after Q4 earnings

Bank of America warned that new competition from Lucid (LCID), GM’s Chevy, and VW’s Scout could impact sales projections over the next few years.

Meanwhile, the memo did say Rivian is still “one of the most viable” EV startups and the joint venture with Volkswagen is “complicating earnings forecasts for at least the next four years” for forecasting. Rivian finalized its EV joint venture with VW in the fourth quarter, worth up to $5.8 billion, of which Rivian will get $3.5 billion over the next few years.

Part of Rivian’s lower 2025 delivery forecast is due to plant upgrades coming at the end of the year for its more affordable R2 SUV. Starting at $45,000, the R2 will be nearly half the cost of the current R1S and R1T.

Rivian plans to begin R2 production early next year in Normal but expects output to significantly ramp up at its new EV plant in Georgia.

Despite closing on its loan agreement for the US DOE for up to $6.6 billion last month, the funding is up in the air with Trump threatening to freeze federal loans.

“Given the Trump Administration’s focus on cost-cutting, we believe there could be a risk to RIVN’s $6.6 billion Department of Energy loan closed by the Biden Administration on Jan 16,” Bank of America analysts said.

Despite the downgrade, several analysts upgraded the stock. Needham raised its price target from $14 to $17, while Wells Fargo bumped theirs up to $14 from $11 with an “Equal-Weight” rating.

Rivian’s stock was down over 8% on Monday following the downgrade. At around $11.90, however, Rivian shares are still up 11% over the past year.

Protests at Tesla stores are gaining momentum across the US as people are fighting back against Elon Musk’s government takeover, and the hate is spreading to owners.

Last week, we reported on a new effort to organize protests at Tesla stores worldwide, but primarily in North America.

There were significant turnouts to disrupt Tesla operations by picketing in front of dozens of stores.

But the movement is ongoing, and there were protests against this weekend and more planned for the coming weeks:

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Many of the protests from this weekend appeared to be bigger than the last ones.

There was a big turnout at a Tesla store in Seattle that reportedly ended up closing the location:

There were reportedly as many as 200 people who gathered to protest Elon Musk at the Fort Lauderdale store in Florida:

There are dozens of similar examples at Tesla stores all around the US and Canada, and the movement is now spreading to Europe.

These protests have been peaceful, and people are justifying going after Tesla for being Elon Musk’s piggy bank.

However, the growing negative sentiment against Tesla also attracts criminal activities like vandalism, and sometimes against Tesla owners rather the company itself.

Tesla owners, especially Cybertruck owners, have been increasingly reporting animosity from other road users, and in some cases, Tesla vehicles are getting tagged by anti-fascism graffiti.

In one case in California, a vandal put isolating foam into the charge connectors of a few charging stalls, rendering them useless.

A couple of Supercharger stalls in Utah were graffitied—pictured above. Tesla said that it would remove the graffiti today and that it will “press charges for vandalism at Superchargers.”

Electrek’s Take

The blowback is more significant than I thought it would be. I thought things would end last weekend, but not only was this weekend’s protest bigger, but it sounds like now there are more being planned.

I couldn’t confirm if they were indeed able to close the store in Seattle, but if that’s true, that’s also a direct impact on Tesla’s operation.

It’s just sad that some vandals are going after Tesla owners. That’s just stupid to me. A

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British energy giant National Grid has reached a deal to sell National Grid Renewables in the US to Canadian investment firm Brookfield Asset Management for $1.74 billion.

Minneapolis-based National Grid Renewables develops, constructs, owns, and operates utility-scale solar, onshore wind, and battery storage assets in 34 states, with 1.8 gigawatts (GW) in operation and 1.3 GW under construction.  

National Grid said in its announcement that the sale is another step in its “previously communicated strategy to focus on networks and streamline our business, as announced in May 2024.” It’s the UK’s grid operator, and it wants to raise £6.8 billion to improve that network. (National Grid also operates parts of the grid in Massachusetts and New York State.)

The company expects the sale of National Grid Renewables to be completed in the first half of the financial year ending March 31, 2026. 

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Brookfield operates around 15 GW of renewables in the US and has 69 GW of projects in development. It operates in the solar, wind, and hydroelectric industries. The company said earlier this month, when it announced its fourth quarter and full-year results for 2024, that it was “more confident than ever on the growth prospects of the business, particularly in the US.”

National Grid joins other large energy companies such as Shell, Equinor, and Duke Energy, which are shifting their strategies away from renewables, citing reduced profitability.

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