Legacy automakers have one major advantage over startups with direct-to-consumer sales

to individuals rather than a network of dealers has been making it harder for them to make money.With direct-to-consumer sales, Rivian and Lucid are responsible for getting vehicles into customers' hands after they're produced. The revenue they bring in, logged once a customer has their vehicle, depends on the startups' ability to deliver efficiently.

In a second-quarter earnings call in July, Claire McDonough, Rivian's CFO, said the company started moving fromto rail for vehicle deliveries as a cost-saving measure. A downside of the move was a larger gap between the number of cars produced and the number delivered to customers. Rivian was hitting production goals and saving money. But the thing that matters most — clocking revenue — takes a hit as a result.

In the dealer system, automakers book revenue as soon as their vehicles leave the factory. The messy business of putting a car in a customer's driveway — and finding customer financing — are outsourced to franchised dealerships. And as competition increases, consumers may lose patience with a laggy delivery system and opt for more immediate options on dealer lots.

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