Rivian R2/R3 Hands-On Impressions!
Summary
TLDRRivian, the electric vehicle manufacturer, unveiled their latest models, the R2 and R3, during a special event. The R2, a smaller and more affordable version of the R1S SUV, retains Rivian's iconic design while offering a comfortable two-row seating arrangement. It comes in various trims, with the top-tier triple-motor R2 Tri boasting sub-3 second acceleration. The R3, a compact crossover, is designed for everyday use with off-road capabilities and innovative storage features. The R3X, a performance variant, offers enhanced off-road prowess with a tri-motor setup. Both models continue Rivian's adventure theme, with the R2 set for release in 2026, while details for the R3 and R3X are yet to be disclosed.
Takeaways
- ๐ Rivian introduced the R2, a smaller and more affordable version of the R1, aiming to bring Rivian's character to a wider audience.
- ๐ฐ The base price of the R2 starts at $45,000, with various trims including a single motor, dual motor, and a high-performance triple motor option.
- ๐ The R2 has a range of over 300 miles with the dual motor trim and a slightly lower range for the base single motor rear-wheel drive version.
- ๐๏ธ The R2 maintains the iconic Rivian front face and introduces a drop glass lift gate for easy loading of items like surfboards.
- ๐๏ธ The interior of the R2 focuses on comfort and space optimization, with a two-row seating arrangement for five passengers.
- ๐ The R2 features an NACS charging port in the back, allowing for native NACS charging or CCS charging with an adapter.
- ๐ ๏ธ Rivian has simplified the door system and seats in the R2 to optimize cost without compromising support and comfort.
- ๐ง The R2 includes innovative features like a foldable front seat for a full vehicle camping experience with an inflatable mattress.
- ๐ Rivian also unveiled the R3, a smaller crossover vehicle with a focus on everyday usability and maneuverability, positioned below the R2 in terms of size and price.
- ๐ The R3X is a performance version of the R3, featuring a tri-motor setup for enhanced off-road capabilities and a more aggressive design.
Q & A
What is the main goal of Rivian's R2 vehicle?
-The main goal of the R2 is to maintain the character of the R1 while reducing the price, making it more accessible to a broader audience, and still offering a fun and capable vehicle.
How does the R2 differ from the R1 in terms of size?
-The R2 is a smaller vehicle compared to the R1, designed as a two-row vehicle to optimize comfort and package efficiency.
What are the different trims available for the R2?
-The R2 will have a base single motor rear-wheel drive trim, a dual motor trim, and a triple motor R2 Tri trim, which is the fastest version.
What is the base price of the R2?
-The base price of the R2 is $45,000.
How does the R2's design maintain the iconic Rivian look?
-The R2 retains the same iconic front face as the R1, ensuring that it is instantly recognizable as a Rivian vehicle.
What are some of the unique features of the R2's interior design?
-The R2 has two glove boxes, a new steering wheel with software-defined haptics, and a focus on using 100% recycled plastic, including ocean-based plastic, for a more sustainable and comfortable environment.
What is the R3, and how does it fit into Rivian's vehicle lineup?
-The R3 is a smaller crossover vehicle based on the R2 platform, designed for everyday use with great ground clearance and maneuverability. It is positioned as the smallest and most affordable vehicle in Rivian's lineup.
What are the key differences between the standard R3 and the R3x performance version?
-The R3x is a performance version of the R3 with a wider stance, larger tires, and additional features like front tow hooks and accent colors, offering enhanced off-road capabilities.
What is the unique camping feature of the R2?
-The R2 has a feature that allows both the front and second-row seats to fold down, creating a flat space for an inflatable mattress, enabling a full vehicle camping experience.
How does the R2's lift gate and glass design contribute to its functionality?
-The R2 has a drop glass lift gate that allows for easy loading of longer items like surfboards. The glass can also be lowered without a division bar, creating an open-air experience.
What are the charging options for the R2?
-The R2 has an NACS port located in the back right corner, allowing it to charge natively at NACS stations or use a CCS adapter for charging.
Outlines
๐ Rivian R2 Unveiling and Features
The first paragraph discusses the Rivian R2, an SUV with a focus on maintaining the character of the R1 while being more affordable and accessible. The R2 has a base price of $45,000 with various trims, including a single motor rear-wheel drive, dual motor, and a triple motor R2 Tri. The vehicle has a two-row seating configuration, optimized for comfort and space, with a lift gate and drop glass for easy loading. The R2's design is similar to the R1S but smaller, with a focus on creating an open-air experience. The base model has a range of over 300 miles, and the vehicle includes sustainable materials and a new software UI refresh.
๐ ๏ธ R2 Interior and Storage Features
The second paragraph delves into the R2's interior, highlighting the dual glove boxes, the unique steering wheel with PlayStation 5 controller-like haptic feedback, and the new software UI. The R2's second row offers ample space and comfort, with USBC ports and physical AC controls. The vehicle also features a front trunk and a unique camping mode where both front and second-row seats can be folded down to accommodate an inflatable mattress, allowing for a full vehicle camping experience.
๐ Introducing Rivian R3 and R3x
The third paragraph introduces the Rivian R3, a smaller crossover vehicle with a focus on everyday usability and off-road capabilities. The R3 is positioned as a lower-priced and smaller alternative to the R2, with a similar design language but a distinct hatchback shape. The R3 includes a lift gate, flipper glass, and additional storage features. The performance version, R3x, offers a wider stance, tri-motor setup, and off-road capabilities, with a unique exterior design and color accents. The paragraph concludes with anticipation for the R2's release and pre-order details.
Mindmap
Keywords
๐กRivan
๐กR2
๐กR3
๐กElectric Vehicles (EVs)
๐กBattery Range
๐กAll-Wheel Drive (AWD)
๐กCharging Ports
๐กInterior Design
๐กVehicle Trims
๐กCamping Experience
๐กPerformance Version
Highlights
Rivian had an event showcasing their new R2 vehicle.
RJ, the CEO of Rivian, discussed the future of R2 and R3.
R2 maintains the iconic face of R1 but is a smaller, more accessible vehicle.
R2 is a two-row vehicle with five passenger seats and optimized comfort.
R2 features a lift gate with drop glass for easy loading of items like surfboards.
The base price of R2 is $45,000, with several trims including single, dual, and triple motor options.
The dual motor R2 offers all-wheel drive and over 300 miles of range.
R2 has a new software UI refresh, including a dark mode and new art style for the car's display.
R2's steering wheel features a unique haptic system similar to a PlayStation 5 controller.
R2 has two glove boxes, a front trunk, and a unique camping feature with foldable seats and an inflatable mattress.
R3 is a smaller crossover vehicle with a focus on everyday use and maneuverability.
R3 has a unique rear hatch design with flipper glass and a pull-out seat for extra storage or seating.
R3X is a performance version of R3 with wider tires, flares, and tri-motor setup for extreme off-road capability.
Rivian's lineup now includes R1T (flagship pickup truck), R1S (flagship SUV), R2 (mid-size SUV), and R3 (small crossover).
R2 is expected to launch in 2026, with R3 and R3X following at a later date.
Rivian emphasizes maintaining the brand's character and quality across the new R2 and R3 models.
Transcripts
all right so rivan had an event today
and we've talked about r1t their first
pickup truck r1s their first SUV and uh
you might have seen the waveform podcast
where I talked with RJ the CEO of rvan
about the future and R2 and that's what
we finally have here and we also have RJ
with us here to help walk us uh through
this so first of all thanks for joining
me again thanks for being here I would
love to look around this uh this R2 here
for a little bit because first of all
we talked about it keeping all of the
same character of R1 but you wanted to
bring it down in price make it
accessible but still be a really fun
capable vehicle and bring rivan to more
people yep so let's look at this let's
look at this R2 and see how much of that
character we see here you saw the
teasers it's still got the same face
which I think is fairly iconic so I
don't blame you for not changing that
but what are some things that are
different about R2 I feel like the size
is the number one thing yeah it's a much
smaller vehicle I mean as we walk around
it we've got as you said that iconic
front end um still a beautiful front
trunk mhm uh it's a two row vehicle so
five passengers we've really optimized
everything about this for the package so
the first and second row Comfort is
really high coming around the back we've
got a lift gate but this is a drop glass
now so this glass drops which is okay
really nice for throwing a surfboard or
longer gear into it but I think in
general if I zoom all the way out like
the silhouette I don't want to fall off
the stage here but it look looks like an
r1s in almost every way but I think I
looked up the dimensions and it's
probably closest to like a a little bit
you said it's a little longer than a
model y a little shorter than model y a
little shorter but very comfortable in
the in in the second row as well a lot
of the engineering exercise was making
this
door the combination of this plus the
second row very comfortable there's a
full drop glass without a division bar
here so of course optimized around
creating that open air experience so so
a lot of the headlining specs people are
looking forward to is base price of R2
base price of 45
$45,000 and there's several trims so
there's going to be a base single motor
rear whe Drive trim correct there's a
dual motor trim and then there's a crazy
triple motor R2 Tri which is the fastest
one don't know the price of that yet but
that's like a sub 3 second Z to 60 well
under 360 plenty capable very quick
vehicle but this dual motor one here I
feel like is a good sweet spot of a lot
of capability yeah it's all-wheel drive
it's very quick yeah over 300 Mi of
range over 300 okay yeah is the base one
at 300 or it's a little less the the
smallest battery with rear wheeel drive
is under 300 okay but there's an over
300 rear wheeel drive over 300 all-wheel
drive over 300 uh Tri motor base is a
smaller physical battery than the other
two mhm okay yeah and also on the
outside I wanted to get to this rear
part also you mentioned so I didn't
realize this pops out which is pretty
cool very
power out which is really cool and then
at the back it really honestly still
looks like r1s which I think is a
complement it's got the same bar got the
same logo you see R2 down here at the
bottom so you know it's the new one but
generally it's just a little bit
squatter a little lower a little less
ground clearance just a little trimmer
in every Dimension to make it
appropriately two row sized I also
there's a couple other things on the
other back side here which is you move
the charge port yeah so charge ports in
the back rear corner so back rear and if
we pop it open I believe we'll
see as right it's an nacs Port so now we
know R1 owners will be able to use an
adapter to charge an nacs but R2 has
moved it to the back right corner and
can charge at NSS natively or now CCS
with an adapter with an adapter exactly
okay tell me about these wheels they're
also kind of a little bit Arrow cap but
yeah Calpers this is a dual motor setup
but the the this is with the more
off-road tire there's also more on-road
tire but the the Dynamics on them are
outstanding okay couple other character
things for R2 do you still have I have
to ask the Bluetooth speaker and the
flashlight from R1 we have um a
flashlight which we should we can look
on the other side okay oh now we don't
have the Bluetooth speaker in this but
it's still flashlight in the door very
signature rivan headliner in the vehicle
um 100% recycled plastic about half of
that comes from Ocean based plastic mhm
so a lot of work just on creating an
environment that feels comfortable not
overwhelming very Timeless there really
a process of extracting elements to make
it as as clean and simple as possible
but still bold okay getting in the R2
here pretty similar looking front seat
experience and a lot of the same
materials oh is there still a wireless
charger going to be up front here and it
yep and it'll work really well nice okay
okay I hope so got cup holders here and
the other thing I I just got a quick
walk through of it but there's there's
basically
two impressively different things to me
someone who's driven R1 yeah one is
there's not just one glove box there's
two there's two glove boxes okay one
here one
there and one for the passenger so
there's no longer the Bluetooth speaker
under here but there is some floor
storage space here and there's no more
under seat storage so before there was
no glove box in R1 but you had the
center console storage which you still
have and you had that seat storage so
that's still there there's two USBC
ports which is nice but now you have
glove boxes the other thing is this
steering wheel so we should talk about
the steering wheel I haven't quite found
a way to explain it but I think the best
comp I can give is the PlayStation 5
controller mhm you have these new
buttons here with these haptics on them
so this big wheel here which you can
scroll up scroll down it's got Springs
and it's got resistance and they can
change based on what you're controlling
with the software so here's an example
right now I have this wheel on the left
controlling the volume dial right here
so as I scroll it's got all these little
clicks for each individual volume
number which makes sense but if I were
to explore a larger menu item maybe it's
switching between Drive modes or
something larger each one of those
clicks would feel with the springs and
the resistance like a much larger here
you go so a much larger
click and it actually spring stops you
at the end at the top and the bottom of
the menu it's clever it's not quite like
fully like touchscreen on a steering
wheel I like that I like that it's
actually just better haptics and more
responsive and more contextual haptics
for what you're doing in the car it's
impressive yeah I like it we developed
it entirely house it's um all the
electronics to give that software
defined haptics is really uh we wanted
to create this amazing scrolling
experience yeah I did not expect that
and that's super cool there's also a
bunch of new looking software so this is
a software UI refresh that R2 is going
to see R1 owners will also get a lot of
this stuff which is this new sort of
almost like an art style uh for the car
so this is the actual color of the car
uh this is a camp mode which there's a
new Tent Accessory that is really
serious looking uh there's also a super
dark mode so if you're sleeping in the
car you've got this super low light uh
all red version so you cannot have tons
of light blasting into your eyes um and
also this new UI up front which has your
speed you can again change volume and
get your compass up here and things like
that so it's all looking pretty
refreshed which I think is a good thing
but still has a lot of the rivan
character but I think we should jump in
the back seat that's do back seat so
okay second row of the two row
R2 and I got to say really nice second
row space here I mean if you're anywhere
from 56 to probably like 66 you're going
to have no problem with leg room a
little bit of storage here two more USBC
is good no second row screen but
physical AC controls yep good and then
uh still a whole bunch of glass in the
top I kind of like this though really
nice lighting a lantern grab handle I
mean the goal for R2 is basically to
make an appropriately sized two row
version of r1s want to embody the
everything that is rivan into a smaller
vehicle uh and as you see really not
give up anything in terms of the
experience or or the field of quality uh
the way you approach materials the seats
um of course we had to optimize to
enable the price point to be much lower
but uh we think we've really made the
right trades things like back here as
you pointed out these being these
fysical buttons here little simplified
um the door system is massively
simplified uh the seats themselves still
offer the same support and comfort but
yeah obviously in a two row fashion also
USBC up here and a little coat hook type
thing all right so two last little
storage tricks with R2 first of all it
does have a front trunk which is it's a
tiny bit smaller than R1 but it still
has a little bit of a sub trunk and it's
the same idea powered opening not
powered closing save a little bit of
weight save a little bit of complexity
save a little bit of money great but
this last thing I have not seen before
so you might have to explain it but I'm
going to it doesn't have a name either
it's just you can camp inside it yeah
with all the seats down yep I think when
I say all the seats down people are like
yeah of course you can put the back
seats down yeah no all the seats the
front seats fold as down okay so show me
this so we can go and uh look over here
so you see the second row seats are down
yeah you get a flat floor but you can
also fold the front
seats and
uh an inflatable mattress comes in and
covers this and you have a really nice
comfortable full vehicle camping
experience then of course even just the
passenger seat on the driver or in the
front of the vehicle going down is nice
for carrying longer things sure so
imagine you're carrying out a band
equipment or the giant telescope or or
whatever you're car but I've never seen
the driver seat also go down but that
makes a lot of sense so now the
headrests go down the entire thing is
flat and you put the mattress in it's
some accessor you can get it's
inflatable and there's glass on the
ceiling and you're camping in your car
yeah yeah it's kind of sweet so we've
seen R2 yep and I think everyone was
expecting R2 cuz you guys have been
sharing R2 and teasing a little bit but
you guys pulled the one more thing on us
yep and there's R3 as well now yes so
what is R3 so R3 takes um the R2
platform shrink it a bit but it's a
crossover that is interpreted in every
way through through how rivan would look
at a crossover so it's it's a much
smaller vehicle uh it has great ground
clearance you can drive it on or Offroad
uh but it's but it's an everyday vehicle
it's a kind of thing you could use in a
city it's very maneuverable and has a
lot of really interesting functionality
in terms of storage and cargo and of
course focused on making it comfortable
with being so as far as the hierarchy
now you have r1s r1t think of those
Flagship the flagships the most capable
the the absolute highest end R2 coming
2026 lower entry
slightly smaller and then R3 is going to
be the smallest and the lowest price
yeah R3 is the lower price than R2 okay
it's also the smallest vehicle it's a
5in shorter wheelbase than what you see
in R2 and it still keeps a lot of the
same character again I'm I'm looking at
the front you keep the same shape this
the headlights are again I've seen them
all over the streets you know what you
see behind you when you see the lights
coming up but then it's still got a lot
of the same shapes the yellow accents
this is also I think a new paint color
but it looks like it fits right in but
then this hatchback shape at the back
here I think is where it differs the
most and this is the rear of R3 so the
lights don't wrap around as much I
notice you got this Big rivan Tex even
bigger than R2 MH and then you're saying
something about this glass and there's
it's got a lift gate the whole rear
hatch lifts up and so you can go all the
way up so that's pretty normal two
rows little sub truck I'm going to guess
yeah this is a little extra storage sick
there okay and this also pulls out to
act
as as a seat if you need it nice that's
one thing but if we look here at
the at the other side of this mhm
there's a flipper
glass yeah so just the top half now so
that's for okay loading up groceries
dropping a couple things in the trunk
Maybe have a long this is probably going
to be a very California thing but your
surfboard right you just drop that in
here maybe your bike tires stick out the
back and you can drop this down and
maybe hold it in place that's cool it
has yeah this the back is very different
very iconic like slope looking type
thing back here and then uh there's also
another thing behind us and this we call
r3x and so this is the performance
version of R3 performance version of R3
so it's a little wider and if you come
to like the front view here you can
see these flares step out a little more
give you the room for wider tires mhm
this with a tri motor is just that
sounds absurd it's incredible um
incredible but it takes the R3 product
and and really interprets it through the
lens of extreme capability on and
Offroad so it's it's the smallest
probably the most Nimble but also yeah I
can see the tires and the wheels look a
little bit different yeah a little wider
you've got a new accent color y if I'm
not mistaken this little orange for the
front tow hooks and for these mirror
caps that's uh it's different yeah yeah
so we weren't expecting that but that is
further down the road we don't have a a
price or a date for it yet but you're
sort of showcasing the entire yeah this
shows the the road map for R2 and R3
okay fascinating front trunk still front
trunk still rear everything the same as
R3 in terms of the lift gate and the
flipper glass and ACS port at the back
right again two seats two rows of seats
wow same steering wheel it's all very
interesting very interesting okay I say
this keeps the Adventure theme going
this definitely has the same character
which I'm very happy about and uh I know
a couple people uh one of them's name is
Andrew who is going to be very excited
about R2 so all right uh we'll keep an
eye on uh the pre-orders and the release
date and all that fun stuff and
hopefully hopefully it comes out soon
yeah we we're excited about it sweet
thanks best of luck yeah thanks
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