Rivian is losing less money than expected as R2 production gets underway

The EV maker posted a loss of $0.33 per share against expectations of $0.60, and reaffirmed its full-year delivery outlook

David Paul Morris / Bloomberg via Getty Images

Rivian $RIVN reported first-quarter results on Thursday that beat analyst expectations, as the company began production of its lower-priced R2 SUV and reaffirmed its full-year delivery guidance.

Revenue of $1.38 billion — up 11% year over year — came in just above the $1.37 billion Wall Street had anticipated. Net loss per share landed at $0.33. Analysts had braced for a $0.60 per share loss on $1.37 billion in revenue, according to Sherwood News. Rivian produced 10,236 vehicles and delivered 10,365 in the quarter.

Gross profit came in at $119 million, marking the company's third consecutive quarter of positive gross profit. A $100 million year-over-year drop in regulatory credit sales, combined with reduced production volumes, pushed the automotive segment to a gross profit loss of $62 million. The software and services segment generated $181 million in gross profit, up $67 million from a year earlier.

For the full year, guidance remained unchanged: deliveries between 62,000 and 67,000, an adjusted EBITDA loss between $1.80 billion and $2.10 billion, and capital expenditures in the $1.95 billion to $2.05 billion range.

The company said saleable R2 production began last week at its Normal, Illinois, facility, with initial deliveries going to employees. External customer deliveries are expected in the coming weeks. The bulk of the R2 volume build will take place over the back half of the year, according to CEO RJ Scaringe.

Scaringe told Yahoo Finance that higher volumes would translate directly to better economics.

"With the increase in volume, you have more fixed cost absorption, so the cost of goods sold will come down meaningfully," he said. "The margin structure will start to shine through."

Plans for the Georgia assembly plant were revised upward in terms of scale but downward in financing. The facility's opening production capacity was raised by half to 300,000 units per year, while the associated Department of Energy loan was trimmed from $6.6 billion to roughly $4.5 billion. First access to those government funds is now scheduled for early 2027 — pulling forward a timeline that had previously called for the initial draw in 2028 — but the Georgia plant's first vehicles are still targeted for late that same year.

Separately, Rivian said it received a $1 billion equity investment from Volkswagen Group after the two companies' joint venture completed winter weather testing of its vehicle architecture. A deal struck with Uber $UBER during the quarter will see the ride-hailing giant back Rivian with as much as $1.25 billion through 2031 in exchange for up to 50,000 autonomous vehicles.

Rivian began building R2 vehicles at its Normal plant earlier this month after an EF-1 tornado struck the facility, though Scaringe said the storm would not delay the launch schedule. The R2 starts at $57,990 for an initial launch-package trim, a departure from the $45,000 target the company had advertised for years. A sub-$50,000 configuration is not expected before the first half of 2027.

Rivian ended the first quarter with $4.83 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments, and $5.39 billion in total liquidity including its revolving credit facility.

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