Rivian carried on with its long game through 2024 and, despite struggles with a parts shortage for its electric motors, managed to come in on point for its 2024 sales targets. In the fourth quarter of the year, Rivian delivered 14,183 of its R1S (SUV) and R1T (truck) models, bringing its yearly total up to 51,579 combined. The parts shortage hasn't been the only problem Rivian has been dealing with. It's also struggling to find profitability, dealing with quality issues, and with a lawsuit from Tesla (now settled), alleging that it recruited Tesla employees who promptly divulged Tesla’s trade secrets. However, when looking over the numbers for the end of year, it seems Rivian might have the first laugh of 2025 over Tesla.

Beating Down The Cybertruck

Tesla isn't keen on being specific about its sales figures, but while the Cybertruck was celebrated as the best-selling electric truck of 2024, Tesla's end-of-year report shows its truck lumped in with the Model S and Model X as "other models." In total, Tesla delivered 85,133 "other models" in 2024, and the best industry estimations are that somewhere between 35,000 and 50,000 of those sales were Cybertrucks.

Given that Tesla isn't separating the Cybertruck in sales from the old Model S and Model X, despite it being touted as the second coming of the truck, we suspect the real figure is under 40,000. Even if it's 50,000, Rivian can take comfort in the fact that, despite the hype, the influencer effect, and Tesla diehards, Rivian's truck platform outsold the Cybertruck in 2024. On top of that, the Cybertruck's momentum is stalling as it becomes old news to influencers, people are realizing it's an overpriced lifestyle truck, the subject of several recalls, and it's so closely tied to the ego of Elon Musk as he continues down the path of political divisiveness.

Rivian Vs Ford And GM

When we look at Ford and Chevrolet, Ford sold 33,510 of its F-150 Lightning trucks and Chevrolet sold 7,428 of its Silverado EV. Although Rivian hasn't released separate figures for the R1S and R1T, of the 51,579 total sold, it's likely Rivian outsold the Silverado EV with its R1T. Digging deeper, GM in total sold 114,432 EVs in total across the Chevrolet, Cadillac, and GMC brands. Rivian managed nearly half of that with just two models. GM's biggest-selling electric-only vehicle was the Equinox EV with 28,847 sold. The impressive Cadillac Lyric sold 28,402 models, while GMC sold 14,000 of its truck and SUV versions of the Hummer EV.

The future still looks complicated but navigable for Rivian and, in terms of sales, it is meeting targets and being competitive. It's still thought of as a new company, but Rivian was founded 15 years ago. The bulk of that time was spent developing the platform the R1T was launched on in 2021, beating Ford, GM, and Tesla to market with an electric truck.

Recently, Volkswagen Group was greenlit by Germany's competition authority to form a joint venture with Rivian. As it stands, Volkswagen Group intends to invest $1 billion in 2025, another billion in 2026, and then also in 2026, another $2 billion to start the joint venture.