Just been looking at the EV market again and there's something worth paying attention to right now. Everyone's talking about the big names, but I think two stocks that keep getting overlooked are actually sitting on some interesting catalysts heading into late 2026.

Nio and Rivian are in pretty different spots, but both could surprise investors who've written them off. Nio's been executing way better than most people realize - their 2025 numbers showed 326,028 deliveries, which was a 47% jump from 2024. That's the kind of growth you don't see from most EV makers anymore, especially with how crowded the market's gotten. They're doing this through a combination of their core sedan and SUV lineup, plus the newer Onvo and Firefly brands that launched last year hitting the mass market sweet spot. Their battery-swapping network is now over 3,500 stations, which is becoming a real competitive moat. Plus they're seriously pushing into Europe now, which reduces the China dependency everyone worries about.

Rivian's situation is different. They've actually struggled - deliveries dropped 18% in 2025 to 42,247 vehicles. But here's the thing: they're about to launch the R2 SUV, which is going to be significantly cheaper than their current lineup. That could actually be a turning point. Wall Street's expecting Rivian to grow revenue 29% this year and then accelerate to 65% growth in 2027. That's a pretty dramatic shift if the R2 gains traction.

The valuation gap is wild too. Nio's trading under 1x sales while Rivian's under 3x sales. Compare that to the established players and you can see why these neo EV makers still have room to run despite the market cooling. The broader EV sector is expected to grow at 32.5% CAGR through 2030 as new models become more affordable and efficient.

Both companies are still burning money on the bottom line, but they're taking margin seriously - manufacturing more in-house, cutting costs. Rivian's even selling clean energy credits to stabilize near-term profitability. If either of them hits profitability or shows accelerating growth, the market's going to reprrice them hard given how beaten down the valuations are. That's the kind of asymmetric bet worth considering right now in the EV space.