Rivian has achieved a lot in a short amount of time. The company has already beaten both Tesla and Ford to the punch with their electric truck, the award-winning Rivian R1T, and secured a landmark deal with Amazon to build electric delivery vans. And their R1S was once considered the best three-row electric vehicle on the market. But despite all this success, it seems Rivian is not content to rest on its laurels.
In a recent interview with tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee on his “WVFRM” podcast, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe spoke about the company’s plans for the future. Brownlee asked Scaringe if Rivian is employing a similar strategy to Tesla’s “Master Plan,” which involved starting out with low volume, high-priced vehicles before moving on to more affordable, high volume vehicles. Scaringe confirmed that Rivian is indeed following a similar plan and is currently working on their next vehicles.
Scaringe briefly mentioned the R2 vehicle platform in a letter to shareholders in March 2022. In the podcast interview, he confirmed that Rivian is “deep into the programs process” for the R2 and is debating where to apply spending for its development. The R2 will be a smaller platform than the flagship R1 platform and won’t be a quad-motor vehicle, but Scaringe promised it will have “all the personality” established by the brand.
What’s even more interesting is that Scaringe mentioned an “R3” vehicle for the first time in this interview. While we don’t know much about the R3, Scaringe did say that it would “maintain the essence” of the Rivian brand, which has thus far spoken directly to weekend warriors who love the great outdoors. It’s possible that the R3 could be a compact, four-door electric SUV meant to take on vehicles like the Subaru Impreza or the all-electric Jeep Wrangler.
Producing an AWD EV for under $30,000 with decent battery range is a challenging task, but if Rivian can pull it off, it could put them ahead of the EV race. We don’t have a solid timeline for when we can expect to learn more about the R2 and R3, but it seems that Rivian is already deep into the development process and we may hear more soon.
Overall, Rivian has accomplished a lot in a short amount of time and has a bright future ahead. With their commitment to innovation and staying ahead of the curve, it’s clear that they’re not content to rest on their laurels. We can’t wait to see what they come up with next.
