Rivian Closing The Gap With Tesla In Premium EV Market: What Data Reveals

By the end of the third quarter, Rivian Automotive Inc. RIVN was edging closer to Tesla Inc.’s TSLA premium vehicle delivery numbers.

Tesla’s mass-market models, the Model 3 and Y, dominated the company’s global deliveries, accounting for a staggering 96.3% of total deliveries in the last quarter. The Model 3 starts at $38,990, while the Model Y begins at $43,990.

In contrast, Rivian’s R1T truck and R1S SUV, priced at $73,000 and $78,000, respectively, are more in line with Tesla’s premium offerings, the Model X and Model S, which start at $79,990 and $74,990.

As of the end of the third quarter, Rivian had delivered 15,564 vehicles, coming remarkably close to Tesla’s 15,985 Model S and X vehicle deliveries worldwide—a difference of just 421 units.

This achievement is especially noteworthy for Rivian, given that the company only began deliveries in the fourth quarter of 2021, whereas Tesla’s electric vehicle journey began back in 2008 with the original Tesla Roadster.

Why It Matters: In an interview published in June 2022, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that he sees Rivian going bankrupt unless the company can rapidly cut costs and stop burning cash. However, Rivian is now eyeing posting its first gross profit in 2024.

In May, Rivian CEO R.J. Scaringe said that being electric alone is not a sufficient point of differentiation in the auto industry as everything will be electric in the not-too-distant future.

"It really ties into – ultimately what’s the way the product comes together, the interplay between software, the electronics in the vehicle, of course, the dynamic performance of the vehicle, the packaging and the architecture of the vehicle," the CEO then said.

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