Rivian Hits Gross Profit Again, Eyes R2 and Autonomy in 2025

Rivian just released its Q1 2025 shareholder letter, giving us a clearer picture of where the company stands heading into the rest of the year. While deliveries were down, there’s a lot to like—especially on the profitability front, progress on the upcoming R2, and some major financial backing now locked in. The company will share more details during its investor earnings call today at 2PM PT (5PM ET). Here’s a breakdown of the most important takeaways.

Rivian Just Hit Gross Profit Again

For the second quarter in a row, Rivian made money on each vehicle it sold. Gross profit came in at $206 million, split between:

$92 million from vehicle sales
$114 million from software and services

A year ago, they were losing over $500 million on this line—so this is real progress.

Deliveries Were Down

Rivian delivered 8,640 vehicles, which is lower than usual. Why? They shipped a bunch of vans early in Q4 2024 to work around a supply issue with their Enduro motor. That made Q1 2025 look artificially low.

R2 Is Still on Track

Rivian says the R2 SUV is on schedule for early 2026 production.
The starting price will be around $45,000.
They’ve already begun building test units using production tools.
The R2 will use a lot of tech from the R1, which helps keep costs down.

Factory & Supplier Park Expansion

The Normal, Illinois factory is expanding with a new body shop and assembly line for R2.
A new supplier park next door will let Rivian’s suppliers move in and set up shop—this should reduce logistics costs and speed up production.

Volkswagen Is Investing Big

Rivian hit a financial milestone that triggers a $1 billion investment from VW.
That money is expected by June 30, 2025, and it’s part of a larger $3.5B commitment.
VW will pay a 33% premium over Rivian’s current stock price.

More Cash Coming from the Government

Rivian also secured up to $6.6 billion in loans from the U.S. Department of Energy.
This money will help build the Georgia factory for R2 and R3.

Autonomy Features Rolling Out

Rivian launched hands-free, eyes-on highway driving for second-gen R1 vehicles.
Their autonomy system uses 55MP cameras and over 200 trillion operations per second of computing power.
The long-term goal: fully hands-free driving, with turn-by-turn support.

Big Push for Brand Awareness

At SXSW in Austin, Rivian gave over 7,000 test drives during their “Electric Joyrides” event.
In total, they logged 36,000 demo drives in Q1—more than any other quarter.

Charging Network Is Growing and Reliable

Over 700 chargers across 112 sites in 35 states.
98% uptime (very high reliability).
Rivian is now upgrading chargers to support non-Rivian EVs, which opens up more revenue.

Commercial Vans

HelloFresh added 70 Rivian electric vans to its fleet for their Factor brand.
These vans run Rivian’s own fleet software and are designed to be some of the safest and lowest-cost vans on the market.

2025 Guidance Adjusted

Rivian now expects to deliver 40,000 to 46,000 vehicles in 2025 (down from a prior target of 57,000).
The drop is partly because 2024 already had a factory shutdown built in, which lowered output.
They also raised their capital spending forecast to $1.8–$1.9B due to expected tariffs.

Key Financials for Q1 2025

Revenue: $1.24 billion
Net loss: $541 million (improved from $1.45 billion last year)
Free cash flow: -$526 million (much better than -$1.52B last year)
Cash on hand: $7.2 billion
Adjusted EBITDA: -$329 million

Rivian is clearly improving. They’re cutting losses, growing their tech stack, expanding production, and bringing in major outside capital from VW and the government. There are still challenges—especially with demand and tariffs—but they’re in a stronger position than they were even six months ago.