Rivian‘s founder and CEO RJ Scaringe reaffirmed on Monday that the EV maker intends to start deliveries of the R2 SUV in the first half of 2026.
The company is expected to start deliveries of a high-end variant before starting production of the $45,000 trim later in the year.
In an interview on The Verge‘s podcast Decoder, the chief executive confirmed that the Irvine-based EV maker will be working on production intent builds until later this year.
“We start deliveries in the first half of next year,” Scaringe stated, “which means we have to start building what we call saleable units in the early part of next year.”
The R2 SUV is currently in “what we call a validation phase,” the CEO added, explaining that they are “building vehicles, we’re camouflaging them, driving them on public roads.”
The company recently announced late last month that it has “hundreds of production-intent builds” of the upcoming SUV on the road for real-world testing.
Up until the end of the year, Rivian will begin “running vehicles through our plant on production equipment and production process.”
Then, “in the early part of next year, we’ll transition from non-saleable units, (…) which we consume internally, to then units that are saleable to consumers.”
The R2 will start production at Rivian‘s main plant in Normal, Illinois.
French supplier OPmobility will assemble bumpers for the R2 at Rivian’s newly designated supplier park in Normal, joining Michigan-based auto seat maker Adient.
The Irvine-based automaker is also expanding its manufacturing footprint to Georgia, where a new plant is currently under construction, after several delays.
The factory will support production of the R2, and will then integrate the R3 and R3X. Operations are projected to begin in the third quarter of 2027, with sales following in 2028.
The R2 will be a mid-size SUV, with a starting price of $45,000.
However, and as Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Andres Sheppard noted, the vehicle is expected to “launch with a higher trim version initially,” while still targeting the $45,000 base price for the lowest one.
Newark-based EV maker Lucid Motors also chose to launch its Gravity SUV with the more expensive Grand Touring version first, and is only now introducing the Touring version.
In an interview with CNBC, Rivian‘s CEO reaffirmed that the R2 will be “a global product,” with “world-class technology,” which will be produced in the US.
Late last month, the upcoming R2 was spotted at a Tesla Supercharger in Arizona, which confirmed that the model will feature a native North American Charging Standard (NACS) port on the rear driver’s side.
Rivian announced it was switching to the NACS system over a year ago, in March 2024.
The company also aims to open its Rivian Adventure (charging) Network to all EV owners “over time,” with over 80% of its stations already supporting charging of non-Rivian vehicles.
