Five years ago, Rivian and Lucid were almost always mentioned in the same breath. They were America’s best-funded EV startups, each backed by deep-pocketed investors and promising to challenge Tesla from different angles. They were founded around the same time too, a few years after Tesla in the late 2000s. They both went public in 2021, and even started delivering their first products within weeks of one another that fall. Both the Rivian R1T pickup and Lucid’s Air sedan won massive acclaim from reviewers at the time for their awe-inspiring performance and high-tech feel. Both companies went on to burn billions of dollars chasing a goal that’s turned out to be much harder than building a great electric car: becoming a real, sustainable automaker.
In 2026, Rivian and Lucid are still peers, of course, as rare U.S. electric car startups that managed to get to production without crashing and burning first. But the challenges they face have never been more distinct. Rivian has a popular flagship product, a powerful brand image, and a volume product that’s already reaching consumers. Lucid has two slow-selling, high-end products and is fighting to stay afloat long enough to get to its next big break.
[We discuss Rivian, Lucid, Ford’s Fathom EV truck, and more on this week’s Plugged-In Podcast, available here.]
As part of its second-quarter earnings this week, Lucid announced a broad “operational reset” that hinges on $1.4 billion in cash savings this year.
Lucid CEO Silvio Napoli was blunt about the automaker’s predicament during his first earnings call as top executive. “While there is no question that Lucid brought leading innovations and outstanding products to the market, we have disappointed on several fronts, and for far too long,” he said. “We have not executed consistently, we miss commitments, launched products before they were ready, underinvested in service, responded too slowly to quality issues, and allowed complexity to slow decisions down.”
“The work ahead is substantial,” he added.
The turnaround involves deep job cuts, lower capital expenditures, and a deliberate cut to production in Arizona so the company can focus on moving inventory. Lucid says it’s focusing on “must-win” projects, like its robotaxi deal with Nuro and Uber and its upcoming $50,000 crossover, the Cosmos. Notably, Napoli said the automaker was delaying the launch of that crucial car from late 2026 to 2027 because he didn’t want to rush it to market and risk issues. The Air and newer Gravity SUV have struggled to gain traction—Lucid delivered a little under 16,000 vehicles last year—so the Cosmos, with its greater potential for wide appeal, is absolutely key. And indeed, the Gravity’s launch rollout has been hampered by software bugs that Lucid won’t want to repeat.
The Lucid Air remains one of the all-around most technologically impressive EVs you can buy.
Photo by: Lucid Motors
While Lucid’s revenue grew substantially to $405 million during the quarter, its net loss widened to over $1 billion. The company said its $3 billion in liquidity gives it runway into 2027.
Rivian isn’t making money yet either, and it also needs to scale up badly. But while Lucid is pushing back its potential Tesla Model 3 moment, Rivian is basically there. It kicked off customer deliveries of the smaller, cheaper R2 crossover in June. Now the question is how quickly it can ramp that up without kinks, and whether it can convince enough buyers to show up. Rivian recently raised its delivery guidance to 65,000-70,000 vehicles this year—up from around 42,000 sales last year. Its finances are trending in the right direction too. Rivian raked in $1.66 billion in revenue last quarter and posted a net loss attributable to common stockholders of $837 million, both improvements over Q2 2025.
Our flagship newsletter breaks down the biggest EV news every Friday
So, what happened? Part of it may come down to product choice. Lucid launched with an expensive four-door sedan. No matter how impressive it was—and it remains pretty amazing—that’s a limited market. Rivian came out of the gates with a premium pickup truck and SUV, vehicles Americans clearly crave in bigger numbers.
Rivian has also been faster to roll out models. Within about a year after launching the R1T, Rivian started selling a commercial van to Amazon and launched the R1S SUV, its top seller. The Gravity three-row SUV is a boon to Lucid, but it only came out in late 2024 and ramped up slowly.
Rivian fairly quickly followed up the R1T truck with the R1S SUV and a commercial van, giving it a broader lineup than Lucid.
Photo by: Rivian
Plus, Rivian has a secret weapon in its technology joint venture with the Volkswagen Group. That brought in some $300 million in revenue for the EV startup in Q2, plus it’s buying the company time to scale. VW is helping fund Rivian’s future through billions in stock purchases and debt.
None of this means Rivian is “safe.” The company still expects to lose money this year, and it needs to successfully launch the R2 into a weaker EV market. Nor does it mean Lucid should be counted out. Its technology remains some of the best in the industry, and Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund has supplied a number of cash infusions over the years. Last month, one Saudi prince bought 5% of the company in a key vote of confidence.
Not too long ago, Rivian and Lucid were basically running the same race. Today, they’re in very different stages of it. Rivian is trying to scale, while Lucid is working to reset. And neither journey will be easy.
Contact the author: [email protected]
Source link
