Rivian (RIVN) Q2 2025 report: Limited R1 production doesn’t slow deliveries, R2 remains on track
Rivian just posted its more recent letter to shareholders outlining its progress and financial numbers from Q2 2025. We have already covered much of Rivian’s Q2 achievements outlined in the letter. However, we have gained a clearer understanding of where the American automaker stands on production numbers, revenue, and gross profit through half the year as it continues to gear up for the start of R2 production next year.
While Q2 2025 is by no means the worst report from Rivian, it’s not the most exciting from a financial outlook. However, the American automaker does point out several impressive milestones and investments it solidified the previous three months.
For example, Rivian shared news of a fresh equity investment of $1 billion from Volkswagen Group, part of a larger $5.8 billion agreement joint venture between the two OEMs.
As we pointed out in July, Rivian has been expanding its global footprint, announcing a new UK office in addition to a shiny new East Coast headquarters located outside of Atlanta, not far from where its second EV manufacturing facility will eventually operate.
Q2 2025 also marked Rivian’s initial sales of its second-generation Quad Motor R1 models. Speaking of new models, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe shared several progress updates of the new R2 throughout Q2 2025, and today’s letter to shareholders continues to detail steady progress for the highly anticipated EV.
Let’s dig into the full report, shall we?
Rivian expects higher Q3 2025 deliveries compared to Q2
As announced before the full Q2 2025 report, Rivian’s BEV production was way down, completing a mere 5,979 vehicles in Normal, IL, compared to 14,611 a quarter prior. That said, Rivian deliveries were up in Q2 (10,661 vs. 8,640 in Q1 2025).
Rivian cited the reason for limiting production last quarter as “primarily due to a variety of supply chain complexities partially driven by shifts in trade policy.” Despite the lower production numbers, Rivian said it is staying pat on its delivery guidance for 2025 and expects to have an even better Q3 2025. Per the shareholder letter:
We are maintaining the range of our delivery guidance to 40,000 – 46,000. We anticipate the third quarter to be our peak delivery quarter of the year across both our consumer and commercial vehicles. Due to some of the recent changes associated with regulatory credits and our second quarter performance, we are increasing our guidance for adjusted EBITDA losses to ($2,000) million – ($2,250) million.
Total revenues were up in Q2 2025 by both quarter and year-over-year, but Rivian’s total cost of revenues increased, leaving gross profits at an (unaudited) plateau. Same as last quarter, Rivian still expects its 2025 capital expenditures to land somewhere between $1.8 and $1.9 billion.
Aside from the financials, which you can view in their entirety here, Rivian continues to put a tremendous amount of future success in its upcoming R2 model. Per Rivian, R2 development and launch remain on track. The automaker has essentially completed construction of a new 1.1 million square foot plant expansion in Normal, with production tooling equipment for component manufacturing installations now underway.
Rivian expects to commission the new R2 line in Q3 2025 en route to equipment and production processes validation. As we’ve covered plenty this year, the American automaker is assembling validation prototypes of the R2 on a pilot production line in California.
To make room for R2 production, Rivian will shut down its existing production footprint in Illinois for about three weeks in September. After that, Rivian’s manufacturing capacity will increase to about 215,000 units per year. Per the shareholder letter:
During the second quarter we made significant progress towards our development of R2, and advancements in AI. Due to our sourcing efforts and contracts we have in place, we are confident R2 will launch at an advantaged cost structure as compared to R1 and expect it to have a quick path to positive gross profit.
As always, Rivian will host an audio webcast this afternoon at 2:00 PM PT/5:00 PM ET to discuss its Q2 2025 results and provide a business update. The link to the webcast and shareholder letter is available here.
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Rivian has posted a job listing for a steering engineer, specifically mentioning work on a future steer-by-wire system for the company.
Steer-by-wire is an automotive concept that has been around for a long time, but hasn’t yet reached mass adoption. The idea is to replace (or supplement) mechanical linkages between the steering wheel and the wheels with electronic actuators instead.
There are a number of potential benefits to this, like allowing more customizability or adaptability to a steering system, reducing mechanical complexity, or adding speed-sensitive variable steering ratios.
Although there are also disadvantages, like a reduction in steering feel (although, since most cars are moving to electronic power steering, that was already gone anyway).
But few cars have implemented steer-by-wire systems, or at least not fully committed to them, given that mechanical steering racks are a relatively solved problem and the general inertia of the car industry which would rather stick with a solution they know than switch to something better (haven’t we here, at this EV publication, heard *that* one before…). There’s also the matter of regulations, which have often been written to require mechanical steering systems, and may need updating to allow for steer by wire.
But, steer by wire made it into mass production with the release of the Tesla Cybertruck. This was big news when Tesla committed to this – at the time, it was the only thing on the road to exclusively use a steer by wire system, though there are other cars with partial steer by wire (for example, mechanical front wheel steering, and steer by wire rear-wheel steering).
But it seems to have opened the floodgates, as a number of other companies are working on or have since released steer by wire systems (Lexus, for example).
And now, it looks like Rivian is one of those companies – though we don’t know if it’s for the front or rear.
The company posted a job listing for “Sr. Staff Technical Program Manager, Steering Actuator System,” based at its Irvine, CA headquarters (spotted by Rivianforums). This wouldn’t be so exceptional, except that the job posting also specifically points out that “you’ll have full cradle-to-grave ownership of the SBW subsystem.”
So – we know they’re working on steer by wire, to some extent.
But a few other EVs, particularly large EVs like the Rivian R1 platform is, use steer by wire just for the rear wheels – for example the Hummer EV and Rolls-Royce Spectre. These systems are particularly helpful for giant vehicles, because it allows them to be more nimble and make turns that otherwise would require a lot more… negotiation in a giant land yacht.
So it’s possible that Rivian is only working on rear wheel steer by wire here, but we’d like to think there’s a chance it’s working on steer by wire for the full vehicle.
We also don’t know if this would show up on all of Rivian’s vehicles, or only on certain models – the R2 and R3 are in development, and the R1 just got a big refresh. But, perhaps even more interestingly (and very speculatively), VW has invested heavily in Rivian for technology help, so we wonder if we might end up seeing this in VW group vehicles, or Scout vehicles eventually…
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Hyundai’s electric sports car just got a whole lot cheaper. The 2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5 N now costs $150 less per month to lease after another unexpected price cut.
How much is it to lease the 2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5 N?
The new and improved 2025 IONIQ 5 is coming off its best US sales month yet in July, but that isn’t stopping Hyundai from wanting more.
After Hyundai cut lease prices on all trims last month to as low as $179 per month, it’s now offering even more savings.
The 2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5 N is now listed for lease at just $549 per month. The offer is for 36 months, with $3,999 due at signing. At an effective monthly rate of $660, Hyundai’s EV is $150 cheaper a month than it was in July.
Hyundai is currently offering some of the best deals on electric cars, with the 2025 IONIQ 5 SE Standard Range listed for lease at just $179 per month.
The Standard Range model has a driving range of 245 miles. If you’re looking for more, the Extended
Range SE, with a range of 318 miles, is available to lease from $199 per month.
You can even lease the rugged new XRT trim right now for under $300 a month. All deals are for 24 months with $3,999 due at signing and end on September 2
| 2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5 Trim | EV Powertrain | Driving Range (miles) | Starting Price* | Monthly lease price July 2025 |
| IONIQ 5 SE RWD Standard Range | 168-horsepower rear motor | 245 | $42,500 | $179 |
| IONIQ 5 SE RWD | 225-horsepower rear motor | 318 | $46,550 | $199 |
| IONIQ 5 SEL RWD | 225-horsepower rear motor | 318 | $49,500 | $209 |
| IONIQ 5 Limited RWD | 225-horsepower rear motor | 318 | $54,200 | $309 |
| IONIQ 5 SE Dual Motor AWD | 320-horsepower dual motor | 290 | $50,050 | $249 |
| IONIQ 5 SEL Dual Motor AWD | 320-horsepower dual motor | 290 | $53,000 | $259 |
| IONIQ 5 XRT Dual Motor AWD | 320 horsepower dual motor | 259 | $55,400 | $359 |
| IONIQ 5 Limited Dual Motor AWD | 320-horsepower dual motor | 269 | $58,100 | $299 |
| IONIQ 5 N Dual Motor AWD | Up to 601-horsepower dual motor |
221 | $66,200 | $549 |
With the $7,500 EV tax set to expire at the end of September, Hyundai is offering savings across its entire electric car lineup.
Even Hyundai’s new three-row electric SUV is surprisingly affordable. The 2026 INIQ 9 is listed with monthly lease prices as low as $419 per month.
Looking to test drive one out for yourself? We can help you get started. You can use our link to find deals on the 2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5 at a dealer near you (trusted affiliate link).
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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 Elon Musk getting a sweet $26 billion payday from Tesla while the company gets flooded with lawsuits and Dojo is dead.
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:
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Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast:
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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