Rivian to report Q2 earnings after cutting costs, reaching $5 billion deal with Volkswagen

Rivian Automotive will report second-quarter earnings Aug. 6 after announcing higher sales, cost cutting and a $5 billion investment from Volkswagen Group as part of a joint venture between the automakers.

But the electric vehicle startup faces pressure on vehicle margins from higher sales incentives in the April-June period compared with a year earlier, according to data from Motor Intelligence.

Rivian's second-quarter sales rose 9 percent to 13,790 vehicles despite a factory shutdown in April to retool for lower production costs and to freshen the R1T pickup and R1S crossover for the 2025 model year, the company said in July.

Factory sales incentives also rose in the quarter, to $4,415 for the R1T compared with $255 in the same period last year and $2,830 for the R1S compared with $271 a year earlier, Motor Intelligence said.

Production costs in the second quarter will reflect a mix of mostly 2024 model-year vehicles along with some freshened 2025 models with the lower cost structure, CEO RJ Scaringe said at a May event. As such, most of the cost savings won't be seen until the third quarter, he said.

Rivian has been burning through cash since starting vehicle production in late 2021. It also makes delivery vans for Amazon, its largest shareholder.

For the first quarter, the Irvine, Calif., automaker reported a net loss of $1.4 billion. Rivian said it had $7.9 billion in cash and equivalents at the end of that quarter. It reported a net loss of $5.4 billion for the 2023 calendar year.

Despite the cash burn, Rivian is on a path to profitability, executives said at a June investor event, bolstered by the Volkswagen investment. Part of the money will be used for a joint venture to incorporate Rivian's electrical architecture into future VW Group vehicles, the companies said.

Rivian is also using the new architecture, which it developed for the freshened R1 models, on lower-cost vehicles of its own beginning in 2026.

While Rivian's current R1 vehicles start at over $70,000 with shipping, the EV maker is preparing its Normal, Ill., factory for the launch of a smaller crossover, the R2, that will start around $45,000. It plans an even lower-cost R3 model but hasn't given a timeline or price target for it.

Wall Street analysts upgraded Rivian's stock price after the Volkswagen investment.

"Rivian has a greater chance of success as an auto/tech supplier than as a manufacturer," Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said in a July 17 note. Jonas said there was potential for a deeper collaboration between Rivian and Volkswagen that could involve joint development of EVs. Jonas is bullish on Rivian's stock price.