Rivian‘s founder and CEO RJ Scaringe has for the first time explained why the company’s R2 midsize SUV — its most important product launch to date — charges significantly slower than several incoming competitors.
Scaringe said that the company deliberately chose an energy-dense battery chemistry optimised for range and cost rather than fast-charge speed.
“The chemistry we selected, we optimised around energy density, or I should say cost per kilowatt hour, versus fast charge,” Scaringe said during an interview with Out of Spec‘s founder Kyle Conner.
“You can make a decision to say we’re gonna target a 20-minute charge time, but the cost per kilowatt hour is gonna be higher, and therefore it affects the price,” Rivian‘s chief added.
The comments came after multiple reviewers flagged charging performance as the R2’s most notable weakness following the full specification reveal on March 12.
Rivian disclosed a 10–80% charging time of 29 minutes for the 87.9 kWh battery but has not published a peak DC fast-charging rate — an omission that has itself drawn attention in a segment where competitors are increasingly advertising peak power figures above 300 kW.
’10 Charges a Year’
Scaringe said Rivian studied its R1 fleet data before making the battery chemistry decision and found that owners average approximately 10 DC fast-charge sessions per year, with the vast majority of charging happening at home on Level 2.
“And so we said, for 10 charges a year, would we rather add a few thousand dollars in cost,” Scaringe said. “We just came to a view that we think this is the right place to be for today.”
Conner pressed the CEO specifically on why charging performance was “not class-leading yet,” Scaringe confirmed the R2 uses what he called an “energy cell centric approach” — the same general strategy Tesla employs.
“We also have just seen the market seems to really bias towards having a lot of range versus if you could pick 330 miles or 290 miles but faster charging,” Scaringe told Conner.
“We felt more people prefer, especially coming from combustion to electric, most people just look at the EPA range number,” Rivian‘s chief added.
Conner framed the trade-off as “still that sort of power cell versus energy dense cell.” Scaringe agreed: “Yeah, that’s exactly what it is.”
The CEO committed to future improvement without specifying a timeline. “Future versions of R2, I will say, it will be faster,” he said.
Top Gear, which drove a preproduction Performance prototype, described the charging as adequate but not exceptional, noting “up to 200 kW” in its review.
Kelley Blue Book called the 29-minute 10–80% time “not class-leading but on par with Tesla’s charging curve.”
The 400-Volt Question
The R2 uses a 400-volt electrical architecture rather than the 800-volt systems adopted by a growing list of competitors including the BMW iX3, Volvo EX60, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6, Porsche Macan Electric, and Lucid’s upcoming Cosmos.
The 800-volt architecture enables higher charging power with lower current, reducing thermal stress and allowing faster sustained charge rates.
Rivian‘s decision to stay at 400 volts was driven by cost.
The higher-voltage architecture requires more expensive power electronics, inverters, and wiring — costs that would have pushed the R2 above its target price band in a segment where Rivian is already launching at $57,990 for the Performance Launch Edition, with the entry-level $45,000 Standard not arriving until late 2027.
The R2’s new 4695-format cylindrical cells, supplied by LG Energy Solution, are designed primarily for energy density and manufacturing cost efficiency.
The structural battery pack comprises three modules of 256 cells each, totalling 768 cells.
The usable capacity of 87.9 kWh delivers 330 miles of EPA range in the AWD Performance and Premium trims, and 345 miles in the more efficient single-motor Standard Long Range.
How It Compares
For the Performance Launch Edition with 330 miles of range, the 29-minute 10–80% session replenishes approximately 231 miles at a rate of roughly 8.0 miles per minute.
For comparison, the BMW iX3 on a 400 kW charger delivers that equivalent range in 21 minutes — eight minutes faster despite carrying a larger 108.7 kWh battery.
The Hyundai Ioniq 5 completes its 10–80% in approximately 18 minutes.
Scaringe’s defence rests on two arguments: that most charging happens at home where speed is irrelevant, and that consumers prioritise range over charge speed when choosing an EV.
The fleet data supporting the first claim, with Scaringe saying that R1S and R1T owners only get 10 DC fast charges per year.
