Rivian ended last year by delivering 51,579 electric SUVs, trucks and vans, more than triple the number it sent to customers in 2023.
The company announced Friday that it has also built 49,476 EVs in 2024. That’s about 8,000 fewer than it expected to produce by July. However, Rivian was forced to lower its expectations when faced with a component shortage that delayed production. This shortage has been resolved, according to the press release.
Rivian won’t release its financial results for the year until Feb. 20, but the delivery and production numbers help round out what has been a growing year for the growing EV company.
The company began 2024 by cutting 10% of its workforce in February as it and others were locked in a Tesla-initiated price war.
A month later, Rivian unveiled the R2 SUV, its upcoming mid-size SUV that is supposed to sell in much higher volumes than the current R1S. The R2 is slated to start around $45,000 and will be built at the company’s factory in Normal, Illinois.
The R2 announcement event came with its own mixed bag of news. Rivian unveiled a real surprise that was a huge success: the R3 hatchback, which is supposed to go into production after the R2. But the company also announced it was delaying its new Georgia plant and said it would expand the Normal plant in the meantime.
In May, Rivian began rolling out facelifted versions of the R1S and R1T station wagon. The company simplified the inner workings of the vehicles in an effort to curb its ever-increasing financial losses.
The company got another boost in June when it announced a joint venture with the Volkswagen Group. The German giant pledged to invest $5 billion in the collaboration, while Rivian agreed to provide software and electrical architecture know-how that will help modernize Volkswagen’s portfolio. (The deal officially closed in November and grew to $5.8 billion.)
Rivian ended the year by securing a $6.6 billion loan pledge from the Biden administration to help build the Georgia plant — though that loan is already being questioned by some of the Trump administration’s top advisers.
This year could be just as chaotic for Rivia. Not only could the $6.6 billion credit turn into a political minefield, but Rivian — and other EV makers — are playing down the very real possibility that the Trump administration will try to find a way to remove the federal tax credit. of 7,500 dollars for electric vehicles. This could put even more pressure on Rivian as it struggles to get the R2 into production in the first half of 2026.
