Rivian's deliveries jump as its cheaper R2 starts to ramp up

Rivian produced 19,751 vehicles at its factory in Normal, Illinois, and delivered 19,248 in the quarter ending September 30. The company says the results are in line with its outlook.

For a direct-to-consumer automaker like Rivian, deliveries work as a stand-in for sales, The Verge notes.

By the numbers:

• Year over year: deliveries rose about 46% from 13,201 in the same quarter of 2025, Quartz reports. The Verge puts production growth at 85%.
• Quarter over quarter: deliveries jumped 58% from the second quarter, according to Electrek.
• Year to date: Rivian has delivered 41,807 vehicles through the first three quarters of 2026, Electrek reports.
• A record: it's the most vehicles Rivian has ever delivered in a single quarter, according to RivianTrackr. The year-to-date total is just 440 short of everything Rivian delivered in all of 2025.

Last year's third quarter also had a boost of its own, RivianTrackr notes: buyers rushed to claim the federal tax credit before it expired. Nothing like that pulled demand forward this year, which makes the growth more meaningful.

Rivian's output has climbed steadily all year, according to Electrek:

Rivian has nearly doubled its quarterly deliveries since the first quarter, largely thanks to the R2. Electrek credits improving manufacturing efficiency at the Normal plant, along with demand for the R1, Rivian's commercial delivery vans and, most of all, the new R2.

The big picture: the R2 is Rivian's smaller, more affordable SUV, and the company has said its future depends on it.

"R2 is the most important thing we have because it's what takes us from being subscale to being a scaled manufacturer," Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe told The Verge earlier this year. The Verge says the R2 needed to be a hit for Rivian to survive as an independent company.

Rivian has told investors it expects to sell upwards of 25,000 R2s in its first year of production, The Verge reports. That would make it one of the fastest launches of a new electric vehicle in US history.

How many R2s so far? Rivian doesn't break down sales by model. But it expects full-year deliveries of its R1 lineup, the R1T truck and R1S SUV, and its electric delivery van to stay flat. Since Rivian delivered over 13,000 vehicles in the same quarter last year, The Verge estimates that roughly 6,000 R2s reached customers this quarter.

In real life If you've been eyeing an R2, the version on sale right now is the higher-priced Performance trim. Electrek reports that's the only one available through the end of the year, with a Premium version coming in late 2026.

The catch: the cheaper versions that make the R2 truly affordable aren't here yet.

Electrek notes that Rivian is selling only the Performance version through the end of the year, even though the lower-cost trims are what most buyers are waiting for. Rivian also said this week that its lidar sensor suite won't reach customers until 2027, pushed back from its original late 2026 target.

Rivian has had some other good news recently. The Verge reports that the R2 hit its climate goal of cutting its lifetime emissions by 50%, four years ahead of schedule.

Rivian's growth stands out in a tough year for electric cars.

• US EV sales: as of September 2026, overall EV sales were down nearly 24% year over year, according to Cox Automotive data cited by The Verge.
• Market share: EVs have made up around 6% to 7% of US light-duty vehicle sales this year, down from a peak above 10% in 2025, Electrek reports.
• The tax credit: the $7,500 federal EV tax credit ended last year, and The Verge says broader EV sales fell after that.
• Tesla: by comparison, Tesla just reported a 2.1% drop in third quarter deliveries, though that beat expectations. We covered Tesla's Q3 numbers earlier today.

Rivian's shares rose more than 2% when the market opened on Friday, according to GuruFocus, which reports that both production and deliveries beat analyst expectations.

Wall Street will be watching the financial report closely. GuruFocus says consensus estimates for the quarter project a loss of $0.65 per share on $1.96 billion in revenue. Rivian remains unprofitable, so investors are focused on its production ramp and sales growth.

GuruFocus puts Rivian's market value at about $21.4 billion. Besides its R1T truck and R1S SUV, Rivian builds electric delivery vans for Amazon and other fleet customers. GuruFocus also reports that insiders bought about $1 billion worth of Rivian shares over the past 12 months, against $7.1 million sold.

There's also a question about what the R2 does to Rivian's average selling price. The R2 is meant to be cheaper than the R1, but Electrek notes that the Performance version, the only one on sale right now, should still carry an average price close to the R1's.

What's next: Rivian reaffirmed its 2026 delivery guidance of 65,000 to 70,000 vehicles. To get there, Electrek calculates it needs about 23,000 to 28,000 deliveries in the fourth quarter, which it calls likely given the R2 ramp and the arrival of the Premium version.

RivianTrackr adds some context. Back in July, Rivian told investors it expected a second R2 production shift running by the end of the third quarter, with deliveries weighted toward the fourth. A quarter "in line" with its outlook suggests that plan is on track. Production also outpaced deliveries by about 500 vehicles, giving Rivian a small cushion going into the last stretch of the year.

The bigger question, RivianTrackr notes, is whether the R2 is moving toward the positive gross profit Rivian targeted by the end of 2026, since higher volume only helps if each R2 gets cheaper to build.

Rivian will release its full third quarter financial results after the market closes on October 29, 2026, followed by a webcast at 5:00 p.m. Eastern. That's when investors will see how much the R2's lower price weighs on Rivian's average sale price and profits, a question Electrek also raises.

• If you want an R2: it's on sale now in the Performance trim, with a Premium version expected late this year and cheaper versions after that.
• If you're waiting for lidar features: Rivian now says they'll arrive in 2027.
• If you're watching EVs: Rivian is growing while the overall US EV market shrinks, largely on the strength of one new model.