Better Electric Vehicle (EV) Stock: Lucid Group vs. Rivian

Demand for electric vehicles is expected to surge over the next several decades. While much of this growth is expected globally, penetration for EVs is still expected to rise substantially in the U.S., the primary market for both Lucid Group (NASDAQ: LCID) and Rivian Automotive (NASDAQ: RIVN).

If you're looking to invest in a company with the potential to be the next Tesla, there are reasons to consider both Lucid and Rivian. But which is a better stock to buy today?

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Lucid Group is growing faster than Rivian

When it comes to growth, Lucid is the clear winner right now. In fact, Lucid should be one of the fastest-growing EV makers over the next year or two. Analysts predict 73% sales growth this year, and another 96% growth expected in 2026. Rivian, for comparison, is expected to grow sales by just 5% this year, though that is expected to pick up to a roughly 40% pace in 2026.

Why is Lucid growing faster than Rivian? Demand growth for both conventional and electric vehicles does vary from year to year. But for EV pure-plays, by far the biggest driver of growth is the introduction of new models.

Earlier this year, Lucid began scaling up the production of its new Gravity SUV. SUVs are one of the highest-selling and fastest-growing categories of vehicles in the U.S. The introduction of the Gravity SUV also doubles Lucid's lineup. Previously, it only had a single model -- the Lucid Air sedan -- available to purchase. Now, its more diversified lineup and greater overall production should fuel heavy sales growth in both 2025 and 2026.

There's just one problem: An EV from Lucid still costs anywhere from $70,000 to $249,000 depending on the exact model and package. The top of that range is for its luxury Air Sapphire model, but even the low end prices out the majority of North American buyers.

To really fuel massive and long-term growth, more affordable options are needed. And while Lucid has teased plans for three affordable models, details about them have been scarce. Moreover, with less than $1.9 billion in cash on the books, it's not clear that the company has the capital to get these new vehicles into production anytime soon.

Rivian, by contrast, has a huge advantage in this department.

Source: Getty Images.

When it comes to EV companies, bet on capital

Over the past few decades, numerous electric car start-ups have gone under. Why? They ran out of money. Designing, building, and marketing a vehicle from scratch typically takes billions of dollars and perhaps a decade or more. All of this typically occurs when the start-up is still deeply unprofitable.

To keep such companies afloat requires investors to willingly plug the gap, providing more and more capital until management can turn its vision into reality. Small missteps or timeline delays along the way can cause investors to lose faith. That can restrict capital availability, often sending once-promising start-ups into financing free fall.

Lucid is still operating in this critical phase. It may want to roll out new mass-market models, but will need to raise a significant amount of cash in order to do so. It's not clear yet whether that will happen.

Rivian, meanwhile, is in a significantly better financial position. Its three upcoming mass-market vehicles -- the R2, R3, and R3X -- appear much further along in the development pipeline than Lucid's new models. Rivian confirmed last month that it is still on track to start production of the R2 in the first half of 2026 with a starting price of around $45,000. The R3 and R3X will follow sometime later.

While Lucid only has around $1.9 billion in cash, Rivian has nearly $4.7 billion on its books. Plus, over the past two quarters, Rivian has achieved positive gross margins, which Lucid has never managed. This all makes it much more likely that Rivian will successfully launch its first mass-market vehicles. And as Tesla has proven, that is perhaps the most important milestone an EV maker can achieve on its journey to unlock long-term growth.

So while Lucid is growing faster right now, Rivian looks like the better EV stock to own over the next few years and beyond.

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Ryan Vanzo has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.