It’s no secret that Rivian is working on a more affordable model line based on the so-called R2 platform that will go into production as early as 2025-2026, as the American EV company’s Chief Financial Officer Claire Rauh McDonough revealed back in April.
However, we had nothing but words to go by, but that changed when Rivian’s CEO RJ Scaringe hosted a Q&A session on the firm’s Instagram account, where a covered clay model of the upcoming R2 SUV was shown for the first time.
The whole video was later published on the startup’s YouTube channel and you can watch it embedded at the top of this page. In the Q&A session, Scaringe sits next to the company’s design team leader, and behind them, there’s the covered-up clay model.
Unfortunately, none of them offer any information about the upcoming electric SUV, but by the looks of it, the vehicle seems to be about 70 inches (1.77 meters) tall and – as some Rivian forums members pointed out – around 177 inches (4.5 meters) long. That would make it roughly the size of the ICE-powered Ford Bronco Sport.
We’ll obviously take this with a grain of salt, as we have no way of knowing exactly what the dimensions of the R2 SUV will be, but it is going to be smaller than the current flagship R1S, which is 200.8 in (5.1 m) long and 77.3 in (1.96 m).
Furthermore, it seems like Rivian is planning on keeping some of the R1’s signature features, as revealed in a poster that made its way briefly into the video, which shows the known front light setup of the R1T and R1S, as well as the portable flashlight that’s stored in the front door.
The Rivian R2 platform is expected to underpin several more affordable models which might have an MSRP of around $40,000 – if rumors are to be believed – a price point that will open up a whole new market for the American EV maker.
If the firm’s CFO is to be believed, up to 200,000 R2 vehicles will be built in 2026 and 400,000 units after that, which will be a huge departure from the almost 25,000 vehicles it produced last year.
No technical details are currently known about the Rivian R2 platform, but seeing how it will underpin smaller vehicles than the current R1 architecture, it’s expected that the battery will be smaller. However, this won’t necessarily translate into a shorter driving range, as being smaller also means the cars will be lighter, so we might see something along the lines of 300-400 miles of range, depending on the configuration.
As always, we’d like to know what you think about this, so head over to the comments section below to give us your thoughts.
