GoKawiilis transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State.
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When Rivian first revealed the R2 in 2024, a lot of the excitement was centered on the starting price of $45,000 — placing it slightly below the current average selling price for a new internal combustion vehicle.
Finally, here was a decently sized electric SUV with great design and impressive software that wouldn’t require taking out a 7-8 year auto loan. Of course, we all knew that a $45,000 starting price for the base model was aspirational and would take a while to get here — like other automakers, Rivian is prioritizing its pricier trims — and now we have more details about how long it will actually take.
Today at SXSW, Rivian revealed final pricing and specifications for the R2, a midsize electric SUV that according to CEO RJ Scaringe is “maybe the most important thing we’ve launched to date.” And while Rivian is sticking to its guns on the $45,000 starting price for the base model, its extremely likely, when all is said and done, that the vast majority of R2 customers will end up paying a lot more than that.
(The prices leaked ahead of the announcement, and the reactions on Reddit were decidedly mixed.)
I’m not saying this is another case of the $35,000 Tesla Model 3, an ephemeral version of Tesla’s bestselling EV that never really quite materialized — but I’m also not not saying that. Rivian has an uphill battle to fight if it wants the R2 to be as affordable as promised. We’ll see what happens next year, when the $45,000 base model is scheduled to launch.
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