Two locally headquartered automakers, Hyundai Motor America and Kia America, reported record sales for 2025 despite a year of turbulence in the manufacturing industry and cancelled tax credits.
Orange County’s largest automotive company, Rivian Automotive Inc., saw declines in both annual and quarterly sales; however, analysts and investors are turning their attention to the firm’s 2026 plans.
Here’s a look at how the three manufacturers performed last year.
Ready for R2
Irvine-based Rivian took a hit in fourth quarter sales and deliveries, though investors aren’t too concerned.
The EV automaker reported 10,974 vehicles were made in Q4, down 13% from a year ago, and 9,745 were delivered, a 31% drop year over year.
For the full year, it produced 42,284 vehicles and delivered 42,247 vehicles in 2025, in line with its expected range of 41,500 to 43,500 vehicles.
Compared to 2024, 2025 production levels fell 14% and deliveries were down 18% (Nasdaq: RIVN).
Piper Sandler sees the EV maker selling over 600,000 vehicles annually—in five years’ time.
The firm raised its price target from $14 to $20 following Rivian’s Autonomy & AI Day, held at its Palo Alto offices on Dec. 11. The company announced a series of technological news, including new in-house software and updates to autonomous driving. Piper Sandler expects the self-driving platform to boost future sales.
“We think this strategy, which is also embraced by Tesla and Chinese OEMs, will succeed,” Sr. Research Analyst Alexander Potter wrote in an industry note on Jan. 8.
Goldman Sachs also raised its price target to $18 from $16 on Jan. 5, as the firm expects investor attention to shift to the R2 release and autonomous driving, Insider Monkey reported.
“We could justify chasing RIVN higher, if we boosted our long-term volume assumptions… but we’re hesitant to do this, given execution risk in 2026,” Potter added.
The EV maker’s newest R2 model, scheduled to launch this year, puts Rivian at a lower price point, with the car starting around $45,000, compared to the R1’s average price tag of $90,000.
“Just bringing that to market is going to open up a whole new aperture of different types of customers who can come into the brand,” Chief Executive RJ Scaringe told the Business Journal in September.
“Since the R2 launch is critical, and since RIVN is volatile, we think a delay would drive downside,” Potter said regarding any hiccups that could occur with the release.
Rivian will report its fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 financial results on Feb. 12.
Rivian shares were already trading around Piper Sandler’s target price, reaching $19.22 apiece, with a market cap of $24 billion, at press time. The shares have about doubled since reaching a 52-week low of $10.36 last March.
Hybrid Sales Soar at Hyundai
Hyundai Motor America, headquartered in Fountain Valley, said 2025 marked its third straight year of record total sales.
Total sales hit 901,686 vehicles, an 8% increase from 2024. Chief Executive Randy Parker credits much of the growth to the increase in consumer demand for Hyundai’s hybrid offerings.
Parker told the Business Journal in November that Hyundai is pivoting to match a market shift toward hybrid following the end of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the related tax credit last September.
Electrified vehicles accounted for 30% of the retail mix for the full year, with hybrid EVs (HEVs) jumping 36% year over year. In December alone, hybrid total sales jumped 71%.
The CEO is gunning for another record year of sales in 2026.
On the innovation front, parent organization Hyundai Motor Group revealed a new AI humanoid robot, Atlas, at CES 2026, which the automaker developed in partnership with Boston Dynamics. The company said it plans to pair the coworking robots with employees in manufacturing facilities starting in 2028.
Atlas is part of the group’s plans to invest in human-centered AI Robotics and “to position itself as a human-centric leader in the Physical AI industry,” according to Hyundai.
Kia Surpasses 800K Mark
Kia America also hit a new all-time annual sales record in 2025 with total sales of 852,155 units, up 7% from the year before.
It is the first time in the company’s history that Kia has surpassed the 800,000 mark. This year’s retail sales also represented the automaker’s highest-ever U.S. market share.
Its top-selling models were the Telluride, K4 Forte and Sportage.
The results “are clear indicators of the strength of the Kia brand and the competitiveness of our models,” Chief Executive of Kia North America Sean Yoon said in a statement.
