Are Rivian's EVs Becoming a Jekyll-and-Hyde Story? Here's What You Need to Know.

Investing in what you know is important, or at least thoroughly understanding the products or services the business revolves around. For Rivian (RIVN -2.78%) investors, that might be difficult if you don't want to jump in head first as an early adopter to drive the vehicle yourself. However, there are reports out there that can provide valuable information about Rivian's vehicles, how reliable they are, and if consumers would purchase from the brand again.

Recently, Consumer Reports released two studies that showed Rivian was a bit of Jekyll and Hyde, as it took the top rank on one and dead last on the other.

Consumer Reports

Let's start with the owner satisfaction ratings report based on survey responses from Consumer Reports members. These rankings are important to show which brands have met or failed to meet consumers' expectations across a number of variables. This is hugely important to investors needing to know if their company's brands are connecting with the consumer.

Rivian topped Consumer Reports' brand satisfaction list for the second straight year thanks to the popular R1S and R1T. Rivian finds itself in good company with multiple luxury automakers, BMW, Tesla, Porsche, and Lexus rounding out the top 5. Rivian ranked first with 86% of owners marking they would buy the brand again, with second place BMW a distant 73%.

Now let's take a look at the flip side, a report in which Rivian performed the complete opposite and ranked dead last. Consumer Reports took its survey results and calculated a predicted reliability rating on a scale of 1 to 100, with a higher number being more reliable.

On the reliability rankings, Rivian checked in dead last with a score of 14, which was almost half of the next lowest, Cadillac, at 27. Tesla also found itself on the lower end with a score of 36, and all were far behind leaders Subaru and Lexus at 68 and 65, respectively.

Takeaways

If you're wondering how there could be such a Jekyll and Hyde discrepancy with Rivian's results between the two surveys, the answer is probably more simple than you'd think.

All of Rivian's vehicles are newer, which inherently come with more problems, but also the newer vehicles still have their new-car warranties which would offset financial headaches created by the less reliable vehicles. It's also true that the entire industry is working through brand new problems with electric vehicles (EVs) in general, so pure play EV makers such as Rivian and Tesla are likely to score much lower in reliability currently.

It's clear that, despite the potential reliability headaches, Rivian consumers love their vehicles, and its 86% "would buy again" score means more consumers remain willing to buy its upcoming R2, R3, and R3X.

Also worth noting, per InsideEVs' correspondence with Consumer Reports, that the lower reliability scores for EVs are rapidly improving over the past three model years. EVs having 79% more problems than gasoline vehicles is down to 42% more.

What it all means

These Consumer Reports surveys and rankings can give investors insight into which brands are connecting with consumers, and which are improving reliability or driving in the wrong direction. Fortunately, for Rivian investors, the lower reliability score for an EV start-up is expected to be low, and its high score in ownership satisfaction is a great sign for its near-term future as it begins to look toward launching the R2 in early 2026.

Rivian's rankings in these studies aren't solely a reason to adjust your investment thesis on the young start-up, but it's a little bit of good news to go along with the company's recent surge in stock price -- up 36% over the past month.