Rivian Continues to Fall Apart

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jul 3, 9:15AM EDT

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Rivian Automotive Inc. (NASDAQ: RIVN) announced that its second-quarter deliveries were off sharply.
The electric vehicle (EV) maker blamed tariffs for its weak sales.

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Rivian Continues to Fall Apart — © wWeiss Lichtspiele / iStock via Getty Images

Rivian Automotive Inc. (NASDAQ: RIVN | RIVN Price Prediction) announced that its second-quarter deliveries totaled 10,661. That was down 23% from the same quarter of last year. Afterward, its stock dropped 4.5% to $13. It is down 14% in the past year, while the S&P 500 is 13% higher.

Rivian said tariffs hurt its sales, but it is unclear why that would be true. Trade wars could make some of its components more expensive, which could lower margins. Another challenge could be elimination of electric vehicle (EV) text credits, which will likely stay in place until later this year. (However, Rivian does not qualify for the tax credits at all.)

Rivian’s core problem is that in the world of EVs, it is tiny. And its vehicles are expensive, even by EV standards. Its R1T pickup has a base price of $71,000, and with special features, it can run as high as $100,000. It is up against the Tesla Cybertruck and Ford F-150 Lightning, neither of which sells more than a few thousand units each quarter.

Rivian’s sales problems show up in its financial numbers. And its huge losses are unlikely to disappear. Its next earnings report will not be until August 5, but no one thinks the company will post anything close to a profit.

In its most recently reported quarter, Rivian had revenue of $1.2 billion. It lost $541 million. Many EV company experts fail to see how it will ever make money.

The company did recently get $1 billion from partner Volkswagen. However, these cash infusions do not solve Rivian’s troubles. The U.S. EV market is in trouble. And every major legacy car company is rushing for a piece of the action. There is nowhere for Rivian to fit in.

Rivian Stock Price Prediction and Forecast 2025-2030

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.