Rivian CEO Teases More Affordable EVs During Podcast Appearance
The year didn't start so hot for Rivian
On August 5, California-based EV automaker Rivian posted its second-quarter 2025 earnings numbers, recording yet another quarter in the red. According to Rivian, the raw numbers show that in the three months that ended on June 30, 2025, the company posted a net loss of $1.115 billion and an adjusted EBITDA of $667 million, despite taking in $1.3 billion in revenue that led to a $206 million loss in profit.
Despite reduced output due to the planned factory retooling ahead of the launch of its upcoming mid-size, sub $50K R2 SUV, the company still expects to meet its full-year delivery expectation of 40,000 to 46,000 vehicles. In Q2 2025, the company delivered 10,661 units of its EVs and produced 5,979 vehicles, which reflects negative year-over-year growth.
In a statement, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe reflected that it is still hard at work gearing up for its future product, noting that it made "significant progress in R2 development and testing" and expanded its autonomy endeavors during the quarter.
"We also substantially completed the expansion of our Normal, Illinois, facility and have begun installing manufacturing equipment in preparation for our start of production," he said. "Along with R2, our autonomy platform continues to be one of our major focus areas, and we're excited to share more of our roadmap later this year."
RJ Scaringe says future Rivian lineup may include R4, R5 and "there may be an R6"
However, while Rivian is gearing up to release the R2 in early 2026 and the R3 in 2027, CEO RJ Scaringe said on a recent podcast appearance that the model line may not end there. During an appearance on Daniel Tosh's Tosh Show podcast, the two exchanged stories and insight about the EV business, innocuous car stories, and discussed the latest Rivian product. However, towards the end of the show, the CEO revealed to the comedian that there may be a possibility of additional Rivian models beyond the R3, which he couldn't fully disclose in front of the cameras and microphones.
"We think we'll probably end up with like, maybe, five or six different vehicles. So after R1, there's R2 and R3. And after R2 and R3, there's R4 and R5. And that's as far out as our product, like, plan goes today, and what we're working on," he said. "But there may be like an R six. I don't know. But like the—I can't obviously talk about it here or show it to you. I could show it to you offline, but the R4 and R5 are so cool. [...] But that's the next, next thing after R2 and R3."
In a Rivian Investor Day 2024 presentation slide, Rivian showed three covered shapes labeled as "Affordable Mass Market" vehicles. But whether they are the slated R4 and R5 or not, Autoevolution reports that we might be in for a wait before we see them, and that not all of these models may even be available in the U.S. While the silhouettes seem to be subcompacts and the R6 looks like it could be a wagon, in a previous interview, Scaringe mentioned that subcompacts haven't really taken off in the States, and wagons are more of a hit in Europe.
Rivian is currently facing financial pressure, and if it intends to target the European market, it may need to establish an entirely new factory there. It could be a costly undertaking, especially as their new plant in Georgia is proving to be a challenge. As a result, even if we do eventually see these more affordable models in the U.S., it seems it could be a while before the R4, R5, and R6 are on the streets.
Final thoughts
Scaringe's appearance comes as Wall Street expressed some mixed feelings about the EV firm. On August 14, UBS disclosed in a new regulatory filing that it slashed its position in Rivian by nearly 35% between April and June, selling about 10.1 million shares valued at $261 million. At the same time, Benchmark Analyst Mickey Legge reiterated its Buy rating on Rivian stock in a new research note, noting that he felt "confident in the company's growth trajectory, operational execution, and ability to scale production into the R2 launch," following a call with Rivian Finance VP Derek Mulvey.
Rivian has the strength of positioning itself as a firm that provides a wildly different product than what other EV firms like Tesla, Lucid, or even Ford or the General Motors brands seem to be offering, even though they may be seen as the electric vehicles of choice for the "outdoorsy" types of the world.
Rivian CEO Teases More Affordable EVs During Podcast Appearance first appeared on Autoblog on Aug 15, 2025
This story was originally reported by Autoblog on Aug 15, 2025, where it first appeared.
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