Rivian (RIVN+25.02%) stock is soaring after the electric vehicle maker managed to surpass analysts’ expectations for fourth-quarter deliveries and dismiss production constraints.
The electric truck and SUV company said it delivered 14,183 vehicles between October and December, beating estimates of about 13,500 sales. That brought the company’s full-year deliveries to 51,579, greater than the 50,122 vehicles delivered a year earlier and squarely within Rivian’s forecast.
Rivian also produced 12,727 vehicles in the fourth quarter, above estimates, for a total of 49,476 EVs in 2024. That’s more than Rivian had guided to after it lowered its full-year production goal in October from 57,000 units.
At the time, Rivian said production was affected by a “production disruption due to a shortage of a shared component” used for the R1T pickup, R1S SUV, and RCV vans,” according to a regulatory filing. Now, the company says the shortage “is no longer a constraint on Rivian’s production.”
Rivian stock surged on the news, gaining almost 22% as of 11 a.m. ET. Shares are still down by about 21% over the last 12 months after the company missed production targets and continued to burn through cash. Rivian last year inked a deal with Volkswagen (VWAGY+0.22%) to receive up to $5.8 billion as part of a joint venture, although the German carmaker has its own fair share of problems.
Several other automakers reported strong EV sales for the fourth quarter and 2024 overall, with China’s BYD (BYDDY+0.96%), Nio (NIO+2.42%), and Xpeng (XPEV+1.69%) all notching double-digit increases. Hyundai Motor Co.’s (HYMTF-1.92%) brands also saw some gains as hybrids and EVs grew in popularity.
Ford Motor Co. (F+2.95%) had its best retail sales in years, with more than 2 million vehicles sold in 2024. That includes 285,291 electrified vehicles, such as hybrid-electric and fully electric, which saw a 38% sales increase. Ford sold 51,745 units of the Mustang Mach-E and 33,510 units of the F-150 Lightning, which notched respective year-over-year increases of 27% and 39%.
So far, the only major automaker to disappoint Wall Street has been Tesla (TSLA+8.10%), which missed its own expectations of “slight growth” in EV sales for 2024. Elon Musk’s automaker sold 1.79 million EVs last year, narrowly missing its 2023 sales record of 1.8 million units.
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