Rivian has opened its Laguna Beach flagship store to the public for live World Cup screenings, continuing its brand-awareness push as deliveries begin for its most affordable model to date, the R2, which is expanding the premium brand to a much wider customer base.
Chief Customer Officer Greg Revelle described the activation in a LinkedIn post, calling the initiative a test of what retail locations can become when repurposed beyond vehicle sales.
The Laguna Beach showroom hosted match screenings as the 2026 FIFA World Cup — co-hosted across the United States, Mexico, and Canada — entered its opening week.
“We opened up the space to show the World Cup matches, turning a retail environment into a living room for the local community,” Revelle wrote.
He added that the experience reinforced a shift in how the company thinks about its physical locations, writing that “modern retail isn’t just about transactions” but rather about “creating shared experiences.”
Revelle also used the post to reference the R2 — Rivian‘s midsize SUV, for which customer deliveries began on June 9.
“Oh and check out the R2 while you’re here,” he wrote.
First Flagship Space
Rivian‘s South Coast Theater in Laguna Beach opened in December 2023 as the company’s first flagship retail location — and remains its largest at more than 12,000 square feet.
Standard Rivian Spaces, which numbered 39 across the United States and Canada at the end of the first quarter, are significantly smaller storefronts focused on vehicle displays and test drive bookings.
The Laguna store operates on a different scale, combining a restored auditorium stage, a gear shop, a café operated by Equator Coffees, and regular community programming.
The building was originally constructed in 1934 as the New Lynn Theatre and had been shuttered since 2015.
Rivian spent three years restoring the single-screen theater and placing it on the National Register of Historic Places, preserving the original 129-seat auditorium, ticket booth, balcony and marquee.
Located at 160 South Coast Highway — roughly 15 miles from the company’s Irvine headquarters — the space also hosts film screenings through a partnership with the Coast Film Foundation, a Laguna Beach nonprofit.
The venue has served as more than a showroom before.
In January 2025, the EV maker opened the space as a rest stop for evacuees fleeing the Los Angeles wildfires, offering device charging, Wi-Fi and shelter.
The company simultaneously provided free DC fast charging at nearby Rivian Adventure Network stations within 150 miles of Los Angeles.
Rivian also used the Laguna stage for the original global reveal of the R2 on March 7, 2024, alongside the R3 and R3X.
The World Cup screening coincides with heightened football activity in Southern California, as the US Men’s National Team is using the Great Park Sports Complex in Irvine — minutes from Rivian‘s headquarters — as its official training base camp for the tournament.
Marketing Push
The Laguna activation fits into a broader pattern of experiential marketing efforts Rivian has ramped up since the start of 2026, as the company works to build brand awareness ahead of and alongside the R2 launch.
Rivian sponsored the 2026 SXSW Festival for the second consecutive year, using the event in Austin to officially debut the R2 Performance on March 12 and offer the first public test rides.
VP and Head of Sales Gary Gaines said the reception at SXSW “exceeded” management expectations.
In April, the EV maker partnered with AutoCamp to host a branded glamping experience during Coachella — integrating R2 units into the camp setup and positioning the vehicle alongside the company’s outdoor-adventure brand identity.
Between April and May, the EV maker took the R2 on a seven-city cross-country tour under the “R2 Block Party” banner, drawing long queues at stops including Venice Beach, Denver, Chicago, New York, Atlanta, Nashville and Austin.
Rivian has since begun transporting R2 units to showrooms for permanent display, with demo drives at select Rivian Spaces expected to begin around July.
Beyond its 39 showrooms, Rivian operates three amenity-based Charging Outposts — in Joshua Tree, Yosemite and Southampton, New York — and over 1,000 stalls across more than 140 Rivian Adventure Network stations.
The showroom count rose 44% year-over-year in 2025, according to the company’s first-quarter earnings report.
Marketing Overhaul
Revelle joined Rivian on January 12 as its first Chief Customer Officer, overseeing the company’s go-to-market strategy including sales, marketing and operations.
His appointment ended a three-month stretch in which founder and CEO RJ Scaringe served as interim marketing chief.
Scaringe assumed the interim role in October 2025 after Rivian’s third round of layoffs that year cut more than 600 employees, or 4.5% of its workforce.
In the same internal email announcing the cuts, Scaringe said the company was recruiting its first Chief Marketing Officer and that he would lead the function until a hire was made.
When Revelle was appointed in January, the company told EV it had no plans to hire a dedicated marketing leader, stating that the CCO role already encompassed those duties.
Rivian reversed that position in late April, naming Jenny Lewis as Vice President and Head of Marketing and eCommerce.
Lewis, who joined from The Knot Worldwide where she had served as CMO since April 2022, reports directly to Revelle.
The hire effectively re-established a dedicated marketing leadership function the company had publicly ruled out less than three months earlier.
R2 Stakes
Rivian confirmed that customer deliveries of the R2 started on June 9, after hundreds of employees took delivery during an internal rollout phase that began in late April.
The R2 Performance with Launch Package starts at $57,990, with a dual-motor all-wheel-drive system producing 656 horsepower and an EPA-estimated range of up to 330 miles.
Rivian is targeting 20,000 to 25,000 R2 deliveries in 2026 within a total delivery guidance of 62,000 to 67,000 vehicles.
The company expects to sell 5,000 R2 units in California alone this year, according to an EPA filing.
A Premium trim at $53,990 is expected in late 2026, with a Standard Long Range at $48,490 arriving in early 2027 and the base variant at $44,990 in summer 2027.
