Wall Street MillennialPublished 2026-08-21
“Rivian R2 Launch Looks Like A Damp Squib”
$RIVNBearish
Rivian's R2 model will not save the company; cost reduction claims are unrealistic, and even best-case scenarios leave them unprofitable with insufficient market demand.
In November of 2021, the electric vehicle startup Rivian conducted a blockbuster IPO. On the first day of trading, its stock price surged, giving the company a market capitalization of $100 billion.
This was absurd when you consider that at this point, the company had yet to sell a single car. They started selling their R1 series of luxury EVs in 2022. While they generally received good reviews from critics, their high price points resulted in minuscule sales.
Rivian has incurred operating losses since inception and burns billions of dollars per year.