The vehicle Rivian plans to make in Georgia is now its bestseller

Electric vehicle maker Rivian has a new bestselling model, and it’s the one the company plans to assemble at a $5 billion factory that’s under construction an hour east of Atlanta.

Rivian disclosed in its third-quarter earnings Thursday that sales of its R2 midsize SUV surpassed its other vehicle models. Rivian has said its Georgia factory will focus on expanding production of R2 along with planned sister models called R3 and R3X, all of which hinge on consumer demand justifying the increased production.

“We had great results with R2 becoming our best selling vehicle by volume in the third quarter,” Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe, said in a news release. “Customer and media feedback on R2 has been exceptional.”

California-based Rivian announced plans in late 2021 to build a $5 billion factory off I-20 near Social Circle, east of Atlanta. The project was put on hold but has since restarted. The EV sector, meanwhile, has been hit hard in recent years, including by the end of a federal tax incentive.

Scaringe has repeatedly told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and investors that R2’s success is critical to the company’s future and profitability. Rivian’s third-quarter balance sheet highlights why that’s the case.

The automaker generated nearly $2.2 billion in revenue during the three-month period, a 38% increase from the same time last year. The company also posted a net loss of $913 million, a 22% decrease from last year’s third quarter.

Both metrics show improvement, but the young automaker has yet to turn a profit. Rivian ended September with about $5.5 billion in cash and short-term investments in its reserves.

Rivian has landed financial partnerships with German auto giant Volkswagen, an investment from ride-hailing giant Uber and a $4.5 billion federal construction loan from the Department of Energy to help it scale.

In total, Rivian says it has $13 billion in total available cash and targeted future capital to keep the company’s expansion going. Company leaders added that they’re working to navigate computer chip shortages, inflation, tariffs and other economic headwinds.

“While current macro and geopolitical factors are creating added complexity, cost and uncertainty, our team continues to work hard to manage supply chain risks and increasing commodity and memory (chip) costs,” Claire McDonough, Rivian’s chief financial officer, told investors in a third-quarter call.

Rivian currently manufacturers all of its vehicles in Normal, Illinois, which has been ramping up R2 production since the model launched in June. The company produced 19,751 vehicles among its four models during the third quarter, an 84% increase from the same time in 2025.

The company also posted a record number of vehicle deliveries to customers, totaling 19,248 during the third quarter. Rivian said the uptick in deliveries prompted the company to increase the lower-range of its delivery expectation for the year by 2,000 units. The company now plans to deliver between 67,000 and 70,000 vehicles in 2026.

Rivian leaders said the R2 and its iterative models, which boast lower price points than the company’s flagship R1 fleet of electric pickup trucks and large SUVs, are crucial to attracting a sizable customer base and becoming profitable. The R2 launch model starts at $57,990, with two lower priced versions set to join in mid-2027.

No firm updates were provided on the status of construction at the Georgia factory aside from Scaringe telling investors it is “progressing well.” The factory is slated for a nearly 2,000-acre site in southern Morgan and Walton counties. Vertical construction began earlier this year, and Rivian provided an updated photo of the site in its letter to shareholders.

“We’ll have the buildings up in 2027,” Tony Sanger, Rivian’s vice president of production facilities, told the AJC in early August. “And then our manufacturing engineering team are working closely with us to dovetail the equipment landing in each of those” so EV production can begin in 2028.

The project is one of Georgia’s largest, with the company pledging to employ 7,500 workers. State and local leaders offered Rivian an incentive package worth an estimated $1.5 billion for the factory project.

It joins Hyundai’s $7.6 billion plant near Savannah as a cornerstone of the state’s auto and clean tech industries. Audi, a luxury brand under Volkswagen, on Saturday announced it would build a $4.2 billion factory — its first in the U.S. — near Macon, adding more juice to the state’s auto sector.

As part of its $5.8 billion Volkswagen partnership, Rivian will provide technology to the German company’s brands.

Once complete, Rivian has said its Georgia factory’s first phase will have an annual capacity of 300,000 vehicles. In addition to R2s and its planned sister models, the factory is slated to produce robotaxis for Uber under a $1.3 billion deal.