Rivian’s cost-cutting measures have gotten it lots nearer to profitability, however the firm is warning that 2025 may nonetheless be a difficult 12 months — particularly due to the whorl of uncertainty brought on by the brand new Trump administration.
The corporate 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 “modifications to authorities insurance policies and laws, and a difficult demand atmosphere” may have an effect on these outcomes, based on the shareholder letter the EV maker launched alongside its outcomes.
Rivian didn’t specify what these modifications may be, however Trump mentioned on the marketing campaign path that he was inclined to discover a technique to kill the $7,500 federal EV tax credit score. Pal of the Trump administration Vivek Ramaswamy has additionally known as for the clawback of a $6.6 billion mortgage from the Division of Power to construct a plant in Georgia. That mortgage was finalized three days earlier than Trump took workplace.
“We’re actually wanting ahead to working with the brand new administration and Division of Power on our mortgage, and we share within the President’s want to convey jobs again to the US,” Rivian’s chief monetary officer Claire McDonough mentioned on a convention name Thursday, noting that the corporate plans to create 7,500 manufacturing jobs on the deliberate Georgia plant. She mentioned 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 modifications.
“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 mentioned 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 corporate ended up altering 600 components on these automobiles to drive down manufacturing prices, whereas additionally revamping its electrical structure and software program consumer interface.
Adjustments like these helped Rivian notch $170 million of constructive gross revenue within the closing 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 majority of its This fall 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.
Income from software program is more and more enjoying an necessary 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 be largely pinned to software program, specifically via a profitable three way partnership with Volkswagen Group.
Income from software program was primarily pushed by charging and subscriptions charges, restore and upkeep companies, and new automobile electrical structure and software program improvement companies offered by the three way partnership, based on Rivian.
This story has been up to date with data from Rivian’s quarterly earnings name.