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Rivian ’s cost - cutting measures have gotten it a sight closer to lucrativeness , but the ship’s company is warning that 2025 could still be a challenging year — especially because of the whorl of uncertainty triggered by the newfangled Trump administration .
The companyannouncedThursday its 4th - quarter and full - year 2024 fiscal results , and along with it , shared programme to deliver between 46,000 and 51,000 electron volt across 2025 . Rivian admonish that “ changes to government policies and regulating , and a ambitious demand environment ” could impact those results , according to the shareowner letter of the alphabet the EV shaper released alongside its solution .
Rivian did n’t specify what those change might be , but Trump said on the campaign lead that he was disposed to find a manner tokill the $ 7,500 federal EV tax credit . supporter of the Trump administration Vivek Ramaswamyhas also calledfor the clawback of a $ 6.6 billion loanword from the Department of Energy to build a plant in Georgia . That loanword was finalizedthree day before Trump took office .
“ We ’re really looking forward to working with the new administration and Department of Energy on our loan , and we share in the President ’s desire to bring line of work back to the US , ” Rivian ’s primary financial policeman Claire McDonough enjoin on a conference call Thursday , noting that the company plans to produce 7,500 manufacturing jobs at the planned Georgia plant . She said by and by in the call that Rivian is project to take a collision as bragging as “ hundred of zillion ” of dollars related to tariff , any loss of EV credits , and other insurance change .
“ We really believe , and we ’re very aligned with the administration on this , that the U.S. needs to continue to be a public leader in this regard , and our investment into electronics , into software program , into liberty and AI — these are really cardinal areas for us as a nation to go forward to exercise a leadership position in , ” CEO RJ Scaringe say on the call .
Rivian’s cost-cutting tear
Rivian spend much of 2024 on a cost - cut tear . Itlaid off 10 % of its workforcein February , and rove out simplified , cheaper - to - makeversions of its flagship EVs — the R1 T pickup and the R1S SUV — in June . The company ended up changing 600 office on those vehicles to drive down manufacturing price , while also vamp its electric architecture and software user port .
Changes like those helped Rivian notch $ 170 million of positive gross net in the net quarter of 2024 – though $ 60 million of that came from software and serving .
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Rivian reported $ 1.7 billion in tax income for the quaternary poop , a 32 % increment from the same period in 2023 . The volume of its Q4 revenue — about $ 1.5 billion — came from the sales event of 14,183 vehicles as well as $ 299 million from the sales event of zero - emission regulative recognition to automaker . For the year , Rivian reported $ 325 million in revenues from the sale of regulative credits .
Revenue from software is increasingly take on an important role . Rivian return $ 214 million from software system and service in the fourth quarter , double the amount from the same - year ago period . Rivian reported $ 484 million in revenue for 2024 from package and services .
Rivian may be in the business of building and selling electron volt , but its hereafter is also largely trap to software , namely through a lucrative joint venture with Volkswagen Group .
Revenue from software was primarily ride by charging and subscriptions fees , repair and maintenance services , and novel vehicle electric architecture and software development service of process provided by the joint venture , according to Rivian .
Gen AI comes to Rivian
The company has turned to generative AI as one tool to streamline customer serve and reduce costs . The idea is to expend AI to automate processes and “ greatly reduce administrative overhead on all non - repair labor , ” the company said in its shareowner letter .
What that looks like in practice is an AI assistant , or chatbot , integrated into the Rivian app . The companionship rolled out a beta version in the Rivian mobile app for R1 customers this retiring December .
The AI help was built using a combining of in - house AI agent infrastructure and a third - party large terminology models , harmonise to a Rivian spokesperson , who tot the company has guardrail in situation to restrain the conversation to Rivian avail and usher - related question .
The AI assistant was design to answer head about service penury and general questions about the vehicle . A fellowship representative said it can also do canonic troubleshooting , collect necessary information for service , and answer general question about the vehicle .
This account has been update with selective information from Rivian ’s quarterly earnings call .