Rivian is informing investors that it could experience a more favorable sales year than originally anticipated, despite the numerous challenges facing electric vehicles in the U.S. currently.

Rivian had initially projected it would deliver between 62,000 and 67,000 vehicles this year, but the company now estimates it will supply between 65,000 and 70,000 vehicles, according to a statement made on Thursday.

This slight yet potentially significant increase for the company follows a year in which it only delivered 42,247 electric vehicles. The revised outlook arrives as EV sales growth has slowed in the U.S., influenced partly by Congress eliminating the $7,500 federal EV tax credit, and the Trump administration repealing environmental regulations that supported the production and acquisition of electric vehicles.

The updated forecast may indicate that the company’s optimistic expectations for its brand new mass-market EV, the R2 SUV, are warranted.

Rivian did not provide a specific rationale for this newfound optimism, only mentioning that it exceeded its own forecasts in the second quarter due to “strong growth quarter-over-quarter in EDV and R1, along with the commencement of R2 deliveries.” (EDV refers to Rivian’s electric commercial van.)

On Thursday, Rivian announced that it manufactured 12,613 vehicles last quarter and delivered 12,194, having only anticipated shipments between 9,000 and 11,000.

Rivian is optimistic about the new R2 SUV, which it began selling last month, starting at approximately $58,000. The company has expanded its factory in Normal, Illinois, to manufacture them and is in the process of constructing an entirely new production facility in Georgia to produce hundreds of thousands of R2s annually.

While Rivian has not explicitly stated how many R2s it expects to sell this year, Chief Financial Officer Claire McDonough has suggested a range of 20,000 to 25,000 units. It remains uncertain whether that figure has increased along with the new forecast or if the company anticipates the surplus deliveries will emanate from its commercial vans and higher-priced R1 trucks and SUVs.

Regardless, increased deliveries this year would benefit Rivian’s financial situation, as the company continues to recover from a multibillion-dollar deficit. It had previously indicated that it might finally achieve regular profitability in 2027, but it has recently postponed that goal to focus on the development of autonomous software, primarily because it has secured a deal to provide self-driving R2 SUVs to Uber.