Sign In or Create an Account.

By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy

Sparks

Tesla’s and Rivian’s Year-End Sales Are Messy

Meanwhile, China’s BYD has taken the lead in the global EV market.

A Rivian showroom.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

How is the electric car industry doing? It depends on how you ask the question and who you ask it of.

Two leading U.S. companies — one a startup turned stalwart, the other still trying to secure itself a foothold in the market — reported their production and sales figures for the final three months of 2023. The behemoth Tesla delivered 484,507, besting expectations, according to Bloomberg. Rivian, the newcomer, delivered 13,972 cars over the same time period, missing estimates by a hair. The stock market response tells the rest of the story: Rivian shares were down around 10% in morning trading Tuesday, while Tesla shares are basically flat.

While the more-than-30-times difference is scale is obvious, the two companies’ numbers serve as snapshots of both the promise and peril of auto electrification as we roll into 2024. EVs are a real business, in which Tesla is a large but no longer dominant player. Elon Musk’s company has slipped into the number two slot behind China’s BYD. Rivian, meanwhile, is not just competing with Tesla to sell electric vehicles in the United States, but also with legacy automakers who have ramped up their electric vehicle businesses to the tune of about 10% of the American car market.

For Tesla, everything now is about scale — how it can pump out as many (increasingly competitively priced) cars to snare the average car buyer’s dollar. Rivian is at a different stage of its evolution, more reminiscent of the Tesla of more than a decade ago. The company still loses a staggering amount of money on every car it sells (although that figure is narrowing) and competes in a defined sector that Tesla has notably declined to directly play in: full-size luxury trucks and SUVs. And on another worrying note, while Rivian’s full-year production numbers came in more than 3,000 vehicles over its own guidance, its fourth quarter deliveries were short of the third quarter’s 15,564 deliveries.

While the challenge for Tesla is to sell as many cars as it can, the challenge for Rivian is to navigate the most dangerous part of a new car company’s growth — not the early days of using investor money to develop a new vehicle, but the next stage, where you have an actual car to sell but you have to figure out a way to make money doing it.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct the difference in scale between Tesla and Rivian deliveries. We regret the error.

Green

You’re out of free articles.

Subscribe today to experience Heatmap’s expert analysis 
of climate change, clean energy, and sustainability.
To continue reading
Create a free account or sign in to unlock more free articles.
or
Please enter an email address
By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy
Sparks

Trump’s Pro-Gas, Transition-Skeptical Pick to Run the Nation’s Energy Data

Tristan Abbey would come to Washington from a Texas think tank that argues peak oil is way off base.

Donald Trump.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Donald Trump’s pick to run the Energy Information Administration works for a think tank that denies the existence of an energy transition.

The Energy Information Administration is the nation’s primary energy fuel and power forecasting agency. Since its inception in 1977, EIA has become a go-to source of data for many U.S. businesses, analysts, and policymakers alike. The agency’s previous administrators have been relatively apolitical academics and industry experts, including under the first Trump administration, whose EIA administrator came to the role from a faculty position at Rice University. The office’s current acting administrator is Stephen Nalley, who was appointed deputy administrator by Trump in 2018 after serving in various other roles at the agency.

Keep reading...Show less
Blue
Sparks

Why Are AI Stocks Falling Again?

Microsoft is canceling data center leases, according to a Wall Street analyst.

Microsoft headquarters.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

The artificial intelligence industry is experiencing another TD Cowen shock.

The whole spectrum of companies connected to artificial intelligence — the companies that design the chips, that supply the power, that make the generation equipment — shuddered Wednesday when the brokerage released another note from analysts pointing to evidence that Microsoft was giving up on its data center leases.

Keep reading...Show less
Sparks

The IRS Is Taking Mercy on Electric Car Buyers

The tax agency reopened its online portal to allow dealerships to register sales retroactively.

The IRS building.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

As recently as last month, some electric vehicle buyers were running into roadblocks when they tried to claim the EV tax credit on their 2024 returns. Their claims were rejected, it turned out, because the dealership where they bought their EV never registered the sale with the Internal Revenue Service.

On Wednesday, the IRS instituted a fix: It reopened the online portal for dealerships to report these sales retroactively.

Keep reading...Show less
Green