Rivian released its third-quarter production and delivery numbers on Monday, and while the electric pickup maker is still far behind Tesla, the company has beaten analyst delivery estimates for all three quarters this year.
In Q3, Rivian delivered 15,564 vehicles and produced 16,304, according to the company’s website in an announcement on Monday. The delivery total marks a 136 percent jump year over year and a 23 percent increase from Q2, and it beat FactSet analyst delivery estimates of 14,000, which dropped from 15,000 last month. The totals include the company’s R1T pickup and R1S SUV, the two passenger vehicles the Amazon-backed electric vehicle (EV) startup currently offers.
The figures also represent gradual production and delivery growth from Rivian’s Q1 and Q2 numbers, in which the automaker delivered 7,946 and 12,460 vehicles, respectively. Rivian said on Monday that the figures keep the company on track to reach its annual production target of 52,000 units, with a total of 39,691 vehicles produced so far this year.
Q3 numbers are in:
Vehicles Produced: 16,304
Vehicles Delivered: 15,564These results reflect our ongoing focus to increase R1 deliveries to customers across the US and Canada and remain on track with our 52,000 unit annual production guidance. More at: https://t.co/Mp5xmHExkQ
— Rivian (@Rivian) October 2, 2023
In a press release, Rivian Vice President of Commercial Operations had this to say about the accomplishment:
“Q3 marks another milestone as we continue to ramp deliveries while adding more variety to our fleet, most recently adding our Dual Motor to the R1 platform. It has been truly incredible to see record after record fall as we achieved our most successful day, week, month, and quarter of deliveries respectively.
I am in awe of all the teams from the factory to the field who rose to exceed expectations with over 136 percent growth in deliveries over Q3 2022 and over 23 percent QoQ growth. We are excited to enter Q4 with the same energy and focus to close out 2023 successfully.”
Rivian plans to announce its Q3 earnings on November 7 at 4:00 pm Eastern and the company will hold a follow-up webcast at 5:00 Eastern to discuss Q3 performance and business outlook. You can listen to the live webcast here.
The news also comes after Tesla reported 435,059 deliveries in the same quarter, remaining the dominant EV leader. Despite this, the figure represented a miss on analyst estimates for Tesla. However, the automaker predicted this drop would happen during its Q2 earnings call, citing production upgrades at its plants.
What are your thoughts? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send your tips to us at tips@teslarati.com.
Investor's Corner
Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) reported its earnings for the first quarter of 2026 on Wednesday afternoon. Here’s what the company reported compared to what Wall Street analysts expected.
The earnings results come after Tesla reported a massive beat on vehicle deliveries for the second quarter, delivering 489,126 vehicles and building 451,758 cars during the three-month span.
This was a major shock for those on Wall Street as they anticipated somewhere around 400,000 deliveries for the quarter, and showed Tesla still has plenty of demand for its vehicles around the world and in the U.S. despite losing the $7,500 EV Tax Credit last year.
Tesla Q2 2026 Earnings Results
- Non-GAAP EPS – $0.33 reported vs. $0.53 expected
- Revenues – $28.236 billion reported vs. $26.4 billion expected
- Free Cash Flow- -$1.092B
- Profit -$ 4.751B
Tesla (beat/missed) analyst expectations, so the market response to the company’s quarter is what we will look for next.
Tesla shares closed today down just over 1 percent, trading at $374.01.
In the past, it has been anyone’s guess with what Tesla shares will do after they report earnings. Strong quarters have resulted in sharp drops, while lackluster quarters have seen the stock shoot up considerably.
Tesla will hold its Q2 2026 Earnings Call in about 90 minutes at 5:30 p.m. on the East Coast. Remarks will be made by CEO Elon Musk and other executives, who will shed some light on the investor questions that we covered earlier this week.
You can stream it below. Additionally, we will be doing our Live Blog on X and Facebook.
Q2 2026 Earnings Call https://t.co/zZS6ii2TWK
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 22, 2026
Elon Musk
Tesla is about to make parking in busy lots less stressful than ever
Tesla is about to make parking in busy parking lots at businesses and other points of interest less stressful than ever by allowing drivers more control over where they park and how, CEO Elon Musk confirmed on X.
Tesla has been working to improve the parking performance of vehicles utilizing the Full Self-Driving suite, but now it is looking to add more customization, allowing drivers to choose the specific space they park in, but also potentially the orientation the car pulls into the spot:
It’s coming soon
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 21, 2026
Musk has reiterated on X twice over the past several weeks that Tesla is working to make things with the FSD suite based more on the driver’s specific preferences and behaviors that were seen in past drives.
Essentially, it sounds like if you tend to park away from a business to avoid other vehicles, Tesla FSD will soon recognize that preference of yours and start parking further away as well. Additionally, the prospect of assigned parking spaces has been something many owners have voiced concerns about.
Living in a community with assigned parking spaces makes using FSD incredibly difficult as it will rarely park in the correct spot when there are so many to choose from. This is also pertinent in work settings where there are sometimes assigned parking spaces.
The updates to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving suite in terms of listening to driver preferences with parking are also extending to routing. Tesla announced yesterday that with the release of its 2026 Summer Update, it was adding Automatic Navigation and Preferred Routes:
Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more
Tesla has always maintained the idea that any human input is bad input, and that, ideally, Tesla Full Self-Driving will always make the right decision. Of course, this is all in theory, but the issue is that so many of Tesla’s interventions have come because it does something that is not necessarily wrong, but perhaps not what the driver would prefer.
Taking these preferences into account will help Tesla alleviate some of the potentially unnecessary interventions that drivers perform.
News
Tesla starts preparing for Optimus in its smartphone app
Tesla is starting to prepare for the launch of the Optimus robot in its smartphone app, new coding strings show. Elon Musk has referred to Optimus as what will be the greatest-selling product of any kind of all time, and now, Tesla is getting ready for its launch.
Tesla’s smartphone app had several first-time mentions of the Optimus program, according to Tesla App Updates, who intially reported on the appearance. Here’s what they found:
A Dedicated “Robot” Phone Key Authentication
Tesla is working on a Bluetooth Low Energy, or BLE, authentication that is specifically for robots. This does not only apply to Optimus, though, as Robotaxi, which is Tesla’s autonomous ride-hailing platform, might also identify vehicles within the fleet as robots as well.
Tesla shows rapid teardown of Model S and X lines, paving the way for Optimus at Fremont
Essentially, pairing your phone as a key to anything Tesla identifies as a robot to a “whitelist” of authorized devices. Optimus, Robotaxi, or other products that fall into this category will only respond if the device trying to communicate with it is authorized.
This is a great security feature that will eliminate at least face-value and low-level threats.
Home Data Collection and System Alerts
This appears to be somewhat of a neural network for Optimus within your house. There will be a dedicated screen that asks for consent to collect both video and spatial data while Optimus performs in-home tasks. Everything from vacuuming, washing dishes, dusting, and other activities will be tracked.
There will also be a comprehensive alert system that will track everything from low battery to mechanical issues.
Other Changes
Most of the changes tracked in this particular app update are related to Tesla’s 2026 Summer Update, and include things such as image assets for new features, a preview of the new custom wraps feature, and other unique features.
You can check out our coverage on what is included with the 2026 Summer Update here:
Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more
