Rivian’s cost-cutting measures have gotten it rather a lot nearer to profitability, however the firm is warning that 2025 may nonetheless be a difficult 12 months — particularly due to the whorl of uncertainty attributable to the brand new Trump administration.
The firm introduced Thursday its fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 monetary outcomes, and together with it, shared plans to ship between 46,000 and 51,000 EVs throughout 2025. Rivian cautioned that “adjustments to authorities insurance policies and rules, and a difficult demand setting” may have an effect on these outcomes, in line with the shareholder letter the EV maker launched alongside its outcomes.
Rivian didn’t specify what these adjustments is likely to be, however Trump stated on the marketing campaign path that he was inclined to discover a strategy to kill the $7,500 federal EV tax credit score. Friend of the Trump administration Vivek Ramaswamy has additionally known as for the clawback of a $6.6 billion mortgage from the Department of Energy to construct a plant in Georgia. That mortgage was finalized three days earlier than Trump took workplace.
“We’re actually trying ahead to working with the brand new administration and Department of Energy on our mortgage, and we share within the President’s need to carry jobs again to the US,” Rivian’s chief monetary officer Claire McDonough stated on a convention name Thursday, noting that the corporate plans to create 7,500 manufacturing jobs on the deliberate Georgia plant. She stated later within the name that Rivian is planning to take successful as large as “lots of of thousands and thousands” of {dollars} associated to tariffs, any lack of EV credit, and different coverage adjustments.
“We actually imagine, and we’re very aligned with the administration on this, that the U.S. must proceed to be a world chief on this regard, and our funding into electronics, into software program, into autonomy and AI — these are actually key areas for us as a rustic to proceed to train a management place in,” CEO RJ Scaringe stated on the decision.
Rivian spent a lot of 2024 on a cost-cutting tear. It laid off 10% of its workforce in February, and rolled out simplified, cheaper-to-make variations of its flagship EVs — the R1T pickup and the R1S SUV — in June. The firm ended up altering 600 components on these automobiles to drive down manufacturing prices, whereas additionally revamping its electrical structure and software program person interface.
Changes like these helped Rivian notch $170 million of optimistic gross revenue within the last quarter of 2024 – although $60 million of that got here from software program and companies.
Rivian reported $1.7 billion in income for the fourth quarter, a 32% enhance from the identical interval in 2023. The bulk of its This autumn income — about $1.5 billion — got here from the sale of 14,183 automobiles in addition to $299 million from the sale of zero-emissions regulatory credit to automakers. For the 12 months, Rivian reported $325 million in revenues from the sale of regulatory credit.
Revenue from software program is more and more taking part in an essential function. Rivian generated $214 million from software program and companies within the fourth quarter, double the quantity from the same-year in the past interval. Rivian reported $484 million in income for 2024 from software program and companies.
Rivian could also be within the enterprise of constructing and promoting EVs, however its future can also be largely pinned to software program, specifically by means of a profitable three way partnership with Volkswagen Group.
Revenue from software program was primarily pushed by charging and subscriptions charges, restore and upkeep companies, and new car electrical structure and software program improvement companies offered by the three way partnership, in line with Rivian.
This story has been up to date with info from Rivian’s quarterly earnings name.
