Lucid Vs Rivian Stock: Which EV Stock is Better?
Can’t decide between investing in Lucid (LCID) Stock or Rivian (RIVN)? Here’s an honest comparison to help you decide which EV stock is best for your portfolio.
Lucid (LCID) Vs Rivian (RIVN) Comparison
| Lucid | Rivian | |
|---|---|---|
| Market Cap | $11.71 billion | $15.09 billion |
| Annual Revenue | $753 million (TTM) | $2.98 billion (TTM) |
| Operating Margin | -402% | -210% |
| Net Income | -$2.55 billion (TTM) | -$5.99 billion (TTM) |
| P/S Ratio | 12.12 | 5.90 |
| Cash on Balance Sheet | $5.25 billion | $11.7 billion |
Market Share
Lucid doesn’t have a very large market share but the company is expanding production in the United States and Saudi Arabia. Management wants to enter China, the largest EV market but didn’t share any exact plans on how to make it possible.
Rivian has taken a different approach by targeting the lucrative SUV/Truck demographic and has yet to produce an electric sedan.
Winner: Lucid
Business Model
Both companies sell premium electric vehicles to their customers. Lucid makes money from selling the Lucid Air electric car while Rivian sells two different electric truck models: the R1T and R1S.
Lucid and Rivian are losing money each year and it’s unclear when they will be profitable. It looks like Lucid has better control of its finances while Rivian continues to lose massive amounts of money and dilute shareholders.
Winner: Lucid
Product Design
Lucid only sells 1 electric vehicle, the Lucid Air, while Rivian sells 2 different EV models.
Lucid does have plans for an SUV but the company isn’t delivering its base model vehicles fast enough.
Rivian has a very simple and attractive electric truck that’s gotten a lot of positive reviews from its owners.
However, Lucid stands head and shoulders above Rivian in terms of luxury and elegance.
Winner: Lucid
Production & Deliveries
Both companies are trying to scale deliveries to increase top-line revenue growth in a desperate attempt to become profitable.
Luid delivered 4,369 EVs in 2022 while Rivian delivered 20,322 EVs. Rivian is doing a much better job of production and execution while Lucid has struggled to produce enough vehicles to meet demand.
Winner: Rivian
Management Team
Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson is a former employee of Tesla and helped design the Tesla Model Y. He brings a wealth of experience to the Lucid engineering team and helped develop the world’s fastest and longest-range EV, the Lucid Air.
Rivian founder & CEO RJ Scaringe is a 40-year-old American billionaire who created Rivian to build a beautiful EV truck that its owners would love.
He credits much of his success to Jeff Bezos who helped mentor him and bought a sizeable stake in Rivian before its multi-billion dollar IPO.
While RJ Scaringe is young and ambitious, he hasn’t done a good job of managing costs and may be growing too quickly due to inexperience.
Winner: Lucid
Fundamental Analysis
Both companies suffer from high cash burn but I think Lucid is more financially stable at the moment.
Lucid sells a more expensive product and earns more revenue per vehicle sold. The AMP-2 Saudi Arabia plant will help the bottom line and I believe Lucid stock could rebound from its all-time lows.
On the other hand, Rivian must continue diluting shareholders to stay in business. Rivian lost $1.2 billion in Q2 2023 alone and only has enough cash on hand to last until 2025.
Winner: Lucid
The Winner – Lucid
I like both companies but believe Lucid is the better buy at the moment. Rivian stock could fall a lot further from its current share price until it looks attractive to me.
That’s why I think LID stock could short-squeeze back to $60 while RIVN stock may continue falling due to further dilution.
With so many EV stocks trading under $10, I don’t want to take a big risk on RIVN shares since RIVN stock is down 86% from its all-time highs.
LCID is a better buy under $5 at the moment plus has plenty of financial backing from the Saudi PIF. If Amazon dumps its stake in RIVN then it will be a long march towards $0 for the electric truck startup.
