Rivian is rumored to have produced over 500 R2 units — a figure suggested by markings visible on vehicles shown at Tuesday’s joint event with the Illinois government.
Images shared on social media by attendees at the Normal plant showed several R2s with three-digit numbers scribbled on their windshields and rear windows.
The numbers prompted immediate speculation about whether they represented the final digits of each vehicle’s VIN sequence.
Rivian owner and X user ‘Riviantrackr’ was among the first to flag the detail on the social media platform.
“Assuming the numbers written on the windshield and rear window is the last bit of the VIN, I’m seeing 491, 502, 503,” he wrote.
User ‘KelvinMelnuk’ signaled the same figures, writing that “491-503 Rivian R2 VINs” puts the company “at 20-30/day and the ramp isn’t linear.”
However, X user and Rivian owner ‘Hilbe,’ who reposted several of the images, wrote on Tuesday that “the numbers aren’t the VIN.”
‘Riviantrackr’ doubled down on his initial reading on early Wednesday, stating that he had “confirmed that these are indeed VINs.”
Replying to another user, he added that “multiple people including execs and those who work in the factory confirmed it.”
Rivian has not disclosed official R2 production figures.
The company officially started volume and saleable production of the model on April 22.
VINs Spotted
Before Rivian formally began production, a series of VIN-sequenced sightings traced the SUV’s build ramp in near-real time.
The earliest confirmed unit, VIN 5, was photographed on April 4 at a charging station in Kearney, Nebraska.
A Rivian employee was driving the Glacier White unit cross-country from the Normal, Illinois, plant to the company’s Irvine, California, headquarters.
According to a post on RivianForums, the driver said the vehicle had come off the production line the previous day.
Ten days later, a forum user identified as ‘Budman’ encountered two R2s on off-road trails in Colorado and Utah. One carried VIN 23.
The employees driving the vehicles said they had been flown to Normal to drive R2s back to California for testing and mileage accumulation.
Both vehicles were company-owned, and the employees confirmed that internal deliveries had not yet begun at the time.
By April 15, a Catalina Cove unit identified as VIN 36 was spotted near the Normal plant by X user ‘EVguyZach.’
The following day, R2s were photographed parked in the customer delivery zone outside the factory — the area Rivian uses for vehicle handovers — providing the strongest signal yet that employee deliveries were underway.
VIN 100 was subsequently observed, and by mid-May, an R2 carrying a mid-100s VIN was spotted with California temporary registration plates, marking the first sighting of an R2 registered outside Illinois.
Deliveries Around the Corner
Rivian opened the public R2 configurator last week, allowing reservation holders to build and price the midsize SUV on its website.
Employee deliveries of the R2 Performance Launch Edition — priced at $57,990 — began in late April.
The event in Normal had been widely anticipated as the potential moment for Rivian to mark the start of first external customer deliveries — particularly after reservation holders publicly signaled in recent days that they expected deliveries to begin imminently.
However, the joint event between Rivian and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker on Tuesday did not include an announcement of first customer deliveries.
Instead, Pritzker used the appearance to endorse Rivian, calling it “the best EV maker in the entire world” and disclosing that he is both an R1S owner and an R2 reservation holder.
The event highlighted the state’s $827 million, 30-year incentive package — anchored by nearly $634 million in Reimagining Energy and Vehicles (REV Illinois) tax credits — that supported Rivian‘s $1.5 billion investment to build the R2 at the Normal facility.
The investment expanded the plant’s total capacity to 215,000 units annually, with up to 155,000 allocated to the R2.
The R2 Performance Launch Edition is the only variant currently available, carrying a starting price of $57,990 — nearly $13,000 above the $45,000 entry price Rivian promoted during the original R2 unveiling in March 2024.
The Premium trim is scheduled to follow later in 2026 at $53,990, while the R2 Standard is not expected until late 2027 at $48,490.
Rivian is targeting 20,000 to 25,000 R2 deliveries in 2026 within a total production target of 62,000 to 67,000 vehicles.
Of those, the company expects to deliver 5,000 units in California alone.
