EV maker Rivian produced 10,236 vehicles and delivered 10,365 in the first quarter of 2026, the company announced on Thursday.
The company founded and led by RJ Scaringe reaffirmed its full-year delivery guidance of 62,000 to 67,000 vehicles as it prepares to deliver the first R2 SUVs to its employees later this month.
The results were in line with the company’s outlook, Rivian said.
The quarterly delivery figure represents a 20.0% increase from the 8,640 vehicles delivered in the same period of 2025, when the company was in the early stages of a factory retooling eyeing the R2 production.
Production, however, fell 30% from the 14,611 vehicles produced in the first quarter of 2025.
All vehicles were produced at the company’s manufacturing facility in Normal, Illinois.
Deliveries exceeded production by 129 units.
Both figures topped the Visible Alpha consensus, which had projected 9,852 vehicles produced and 9,678 delivered. The beat was driven by deliveries, which exceeded expectations by 7.1%.
Rivian shares were trading 2.2% lower during Thursday’s premarket session at $14.62, as broader markets pulled back following President Donald Trump’s late Wednesday press conference on the Iran conflict, in which he said the US would “hit” Iran “extremely hard” over the next two to three weeks.
The stock has fallen 24.2% year to date despite gaining 29.6% over the past 12 months.
R2 Production Weeks Away
Production of the R2, a mid-size SUV priced from $45,000, is set to begin over the coming weeks at the Normal, Illinois, plant.
The model’s full trims and pricing were revealed on March 12 at the SXSW Festival.
The R2 will debut with a Performance Dual Motor variant at $57,990, with the entry-level Standard configuration expected to follow.
Deliveries to Rivian employees are planned to begin this month, with external customer handovers planned for late spring. The first customer units will go to existing R1 owners.
Management has indicated that R1 and commercial van volumes will remain roughly flat compared to 2025, meaning the R2 is projected to account for approximately 20,000 to 25,000 of this year’s total deliveries.
Founder and Chief Executive RJ Scaringe told CNBC in February that the R2 is expected to become the ‘majority’ of Rivian‘s volume by the end of 2027.
US Sales Declining Ahead of R2
The official production and delivery figures come after Motor Intelligence estimated on Wednesday that Rivian sold 8,141 R1 vehicles in the US during the first quarter, a 26.5% decline from the 11,070 units registered in the same period of 2025.
The expiration of the $7,500 federal EV tax credit on September 30 has weighed on sales across the US EV industry.
Cox Automotive, which provides model-level data, is expected to release its quarterly estimates later this month.
R1 Lineup Narrows
Rivian has been streamlining its R1 lineup ahead of the R2 launch.
Last month, the company announced that production of the entry-level Dual Standard variant will end, raising the starting prices for R1 models to $83,990 for the R1S SUV and $79,990 for the R1T pickup — a $7,000 increase over the outgoing Dual variants.
In the first two months of the year, the company ran a 0% APR offer on 60-month financing for the Dual Performance, Large, Max, and Tri-motor variants of both R1 models — marking the first time the offer was extended to the flagship quad-motor vehicles.
The rate increased to 1.99% from March 4.
The new offers — which are available until May 1 — include lower APR rates across several trims of both the R1S SUV and R1T pickup truck.
Van Platform and Autonomy
Rivian‘s commercial van portfolio is also expanding.
The company has offered its electric delivery van to third-party fleet customers for a year, after previously co-developing the platform exclusively with Amazon, to which it has committed to deliver 30,000 units by 2030.
Earlier this week, the company rehired Aaron Hensler as chief engineer for its commercial van platform, after the engineer left in mid-2025 for General Motors.
Rivian is preparing to launch new van variants with all-wheel drive and extended battery range options.
In mid March, Rivian announced a partnership with Uber to deploy up to 50,000 fully autonomous robotaxis, building on the autonomy platform the company unveiled at its December Autonomy and AI Day.
Context
Rivian delivered 42,247 vehicles globally in 2025, an 18% decline from 51,579 in 2024, as the company retooled its Illinois factory for the R2 production line.
The 1.1 million-square-foot manufacturing expansion and a new 1.2 million-square-foot supplier park are both on schedule.
The company posted its first full-year gross profit in 2025 — $144 million, a $1.3 billion improvement from the prior year — driven by higher average selling prices, lower per-vehicle costs, and $576 million in software and services revenue from the Volkswagen joint venture.
Rivian‘s full-year 2026 guidance of 62,000 to 67,000 deliveries implies a 47% to 59% increase over 2025, with the growth driven almost entirely by R2 volumes.
With 10,365 vehicles delivered in the first quarter, the reaffirmed guidance means Rivian needs to deliver between 51,635 and 56,635 vehicles over the remaining nine months — an average of roughly 17,200 to 18,900 per quarter, or 1.7 to 1.8 times the Q1 rate.
If R1 and commercial van deliveries hold roughly flat at the 2025 pace of approximately 42,000 per year, that leaves the R2 needing to contribute approximately 20,000 to 25,000 units from a standing start.
