Sales estimates published on Tuesday by Motor Intelligence showed that Rivian registered 3,100 vehicles in May, a 15.9% decrease from the 3,688 units listed in the same period a year ago.
Compared with April, the total also dropped by 10.9% from 3,480 units — and marked the return to year-over-year declines despite hundreds of R2 vehicles delivered to Rivian workers since the final days of April.
The figures land a week before Rivian begins customer deliveries of its more affordable model — with order invitations and public test drives set to open June 9.
Motor Intelligence figures currently include the EV maker’s R1 models and the fully electric commercial vans, which were co-developed with Amazon and opened to third-party customers a year ago.
The data provider reports sales by vehicle type — ‘cars’ and ‘trucks’ — and does not break down sales by individual model.
A split separating the vans from the R1S and R1T comes from a separate Cox Automotive data set, published quarterly.
April sales rose 17.2% year-over-year to 3,480 vehicles, the first year-over-year gain of 2026, though the total slipped 4.1% from March.
March sales reached 3,628 vehicles, a 7.2% decline from the 3,910 units sold a year earlier and a 34.4% jump from February.
Motor Intelligence revised its March estimate upward from an initial 2,925 units, lifting its first-quarter Rivian total to 8,844 from a previously reported 8,141.
Through the first five months of the year, Rivian sold 15,424 vehicles in the US, a 2,000-unit change from the 17,728 units registered over the same period of 2025 — when the $7,500 federal EV tax credit was still in effect.
The sales decline was felt across the industry.
Last month, Tesla set its eighth consecutive month of year-over-year declines, with 40,578 vehicles sold in the US.
Lucid registered 905 vehicles, a decline of around 70 units from May 2025 — when deliveries of its Gravity SUV were still minimal.
Sales Guidance
According to data published in early April, Rivian delivered 10,365 vehicles and produced 10,236 during the first quarter of 2026.
The difference suggests that the remaining 1,521 delivered vehicles were either sold in Canada — Rivian‘s only market outside the United States — or that the timing of delivery and sales registration did not align.
Rivian reaffirmed its full-year delivery guidance of 62,000 to 67,000 vehicles at the end of April.
CFO Claire McDonough guided for total deliveries of about 9,000 to 11,000 per quarter in the first half of 2026 and framed the R1 and commercial van lines together as running roughly in line with 2025 volumes.
The guidance includes a target of 20,000 to 25,000 R2 deliveries in 2026, of which 5,000 are expected in California.
Founder and CEO RJ Scaringe has said the R2 will make up the “majority” of Rivian‘s volume by the end of 2027.
R1 Models
The company’s portfolio currently centers on the R1S SUV and the R1T pickup truck, for which Rivian is looking to increase demand at the same time that it launches the cheaper R2 model.
The EV maker is phasing out the lowest-priced Dual Standard variants ahead of the R2, lifting entry prices for the remaining R1 trims.
Rivian extended its full slate of May incentives across the R1S and R1T lineup through June 4, carrying the discounts into a new month rather than resetting them.
The package keeps the $799-per-month lease on the R1 Dual Standard — ahead of it being discontinued — alongside a $3,000 lease bonus on the same configuration and a separate $3,000 lease bonus on the R1 Dual with Performance Upgrade and Max battery.
Financing of 1.99% APR remains available on select 2026 R1 Dual Performance and Tri-Motor configurations over a 60-month term.
May marked Rivian’s broadest set of lease reductions since the second-generation R1 launched in June 2024.
The R1S Standard and R1T Standard each fell to $799 per month from $899, an 11.1% cut, while Dual-Motor configurations dropped about 5.5%, with the R1S Dual at $1,029 and the R1T Dual at $1,019.
Tri-Motor variants took the largest dollar reductions, at $120 per month off the R1S Tri to $1,429 and $100 off the R1T Tri to $1,399.
Quad-Motor configurations fell $60 and $50 to $1,929 and $1,899, respectively.
Last week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened a preliminary investigation into 114,922 R1S and R1T vehicles, reviewing reports of rear toe links that may separate while driving.
The probe covers model years 2022 through 2025 — nearly all vehicles produced.
R2 SUV
Rivian will begin sending order invitations to R2 reservation holders on June 9, the same day it starts customer deliveries and opens public test drives.
The company set a two-to-six-week window between order and delivery.
Rivian began volume, saleable production of the R2 on April 22 at its plant in Normal, Illinois, with the first units going to employees.
A production R2 carrying VIN sequence 581 was photographed outside a soon-to-open showroom, the highest build number to surface publicly and an indication that more than 580 units have been assembled in the model’s first month.
The R2 public configurator lists only the Performance Launch Edition, priced at $57,990.
The Premium trim is scheduled to follow later in 2026 at $53,990, with the $45,000 Standard variant expected in late 2027.
An R2 Priority Delivery Offer places existing R1 owners and lessees at the front of the queue.
According to the company’s founder and CEO RJ Scaringe, the R2 carries a bill of materials roughly 50% lower than the R1.
Rivian shares climbed for a ninth straight session on Tuesday, the company’s longest winning streak in six months — recovering from a nine-month low of $12.90 in mid-May.
