Rivian

Electric Vehicles · Automotive Manufacturing

Milestone

Rivian adds second R2 shift after deliveries beat Q2 guidance

Software and joint-venture revenue, not car sales, are covering Rivian's losses while R2 output scales toward profitability.

• Rivian's Q2 2026 results showed R2 deliveries ramping since the SUV began reaching customers on June 9, and the company said it will add a second production shift in Normal, Illinois by the end of Q3 while raising full-year delivery guidance to 65,000-70,000 vehicles.
• R2 is Rivian's smaller, cheaper SUV lineup, starting around $45,000-$58,000 depending on trim, built to pull in first-time EV buyers beyond the pricier R1 truck and SUV.
• Rivian's automotive segment gross loss narrowed to $36 million from $335 million a year earlier, but $108 million of that improvement came from regulatory credits and a tariff refund, not from selling cars profitably.
• Software and services generated $215 million in gross profit at a 42% margin, with 60% of that revenue coming from Rivian's electrical-architecture joint venture with Volkswagen.
• Uber has committed to buying up to 50,000 autonomous R2 robotaxis and investing as much as $1.25 billion in Rivian through 2031, contingent on the company hitting self-driving milestones.
• Despite beating revenue and EPS estimates, Rivian's stock traded roughly 32% below its 52-week high in early August, reflecting investor doubts about the car business's path to profit.
• Rivian's numbers illustrate the broader EV-startup problem: a hit new model and rising deliveries don't automatically translate into cars that make money, even as rivals like Lucid still struggle to hit volume targets.