Rivian shares plunged on the day the company began delivering its R2 mid-size SUV, as the first lease quotes for the model arrived well above what buyers had expected and a broad equity selloff deepened the move.
Shares of the EV maker were down 7.87% at $15.52 by early afternoon in New York, against a prior close of $16.84.
That move cut Rivian‘s market value to roughly $19.6 billion.
A Classic Sell-the-News Reaction
The decline followed a sharp pre-launch run. Rivian had risen for 10 straight sessions through June 3, closing that day at $18.27, roughly 25% above where it traded a month earlier.
The streak snapped on June 4, when the stock closed at $18.12 after the company reversed recent R1 lease discounts, and the shares slid further into the launch.
Profit-taking once a long-awaited catalyst finally lands is a familiar pattern, and the launch delivered the event without the fresh financial detail that might have justified the climb.
Rivian confirmed the milestone in a press release on Tuesday, saying the first public customer deliveries of the R2 had begun and that order invitations were going out to reservation holders in rolling batches.
Lease Quotes Land Above Expectations
The loudest disappointment centered on how the R2 leases.
Travis Ketchum, who runs a vehicle-lease calculator, published figures showing the R2 Performance with Launch Package leasing at about $988 a month over 36 months and 10,000 miles a year, with nothing down and a residual near $39,990.
The effective annual rate on that lease worked out to roughly 9.62%, which Ketchum said reflected a strong residual but a money factor that was “… rough.”
He put the straight financing rate at about 5.79%, in line with the Tesla Model Y Performance.
Those terms apply to a vehicle that starts at $57,990 before taxes and fees, the only R2 version available to order at launch.
On Rivian‘s subreddit, an owner thread tracking the numbers called the lease pricing “out of control” and “a huge disappointment for the growth of the company.”
Owners pointed out that the R2 Performance leased close to the larger, more expensive R1S, around $829 a month versus roughly $899, a far smaller gap than many had anticipated, while quotes including taxes and fees ran past $1,000.
With early demand running well ahead of what the Normal, Illinois, plant can build, the company has little near-term reason to discount.
Features Missing at Launch
A second complaint emerged from the R2 First Drive event, where Rivian indicated the SUV would arrive without several software features that current R1 owners use regularly.
Rivian Assistant, Climate Hold and Pet Mode are absent at launch, while Gear Guard is present with limited functionality.
The SiriusXM app, Google Casting and YouTube, and a Camp Mode app are also unavailable on day one.
Rivian has framed the gaps as features arriving after launch rather than ones being dropped, pointing to roughly the first month of ownership as the window before they begin to fill in, without giving firm dates.
Equities Were Broadly Weak
Stocks fell across US markets on Tuesday, as a one-day rally in chipmakers faded and oil prices retreated.
The S&P 500 lost 1.3% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.1%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 279 points, or 0.6%.
Among automakers, Tesla fell 4.05% to $392.40 and chip bellwether Nvidia lost 2.62%.
Chinese auto names also weakened, with Nio down 3.3%, XPeng off 3.8% and Li Auto lower by 3.5%, while Lucid eased 0.8% and Polestar fell 1.12%.
Rivian‘s 7.9% drop outran that group, a sign that company-specific disappointments piled on top of the market weakness rather than simply tracking it.
The Volume Story Is Still a 2027 Event
Underneath the reaction sits a timeline that the launch only partly advanced.
Only the $57,990 Performance with Launch Package is available to order now, with the $53,990 Premium due late in 2026 and the cheaper Standard trims, at $48,490 and $44,990, arriving in 2027.
Rivian did fill in the details on the least expensive version on launch day.
The base R2 Standard now carries a firm starting price of $44,990 before destination, just under the long-promised $45,000 mark, and is pointed at a summer 2027 arrival rather than the late-2027 window the company had previously sketched.
The trim is rear-wheel drive, rated at 350 horsepower and 355 lb-ft of torque, with a Rivian-estimated range of 275 miles or more.
Two things moved on the model that buyers have waited on most: an indicative price of around $45,000 became a fixed number, and the launch window pulled forward into the summer.
Even so, the mass-market case the stock is priced on remains more than a year away, just as the $7,500 federal tax credit that once softened the math has lapsed.
Rivian is still burning more than $1 billion of free cash flow a quarter, and the Georgia plant meant to scale high-volume R2 output does not start until late 2028.
Chief Executive Officer RJ Scaringe has said every R2 variant is engineered to be gross-margin positive at the vehicle level, but investors want that proven at scale rather than promised.
Rivian has said all reservation holders will receive delivery estimates by the end of June, and investors will track how many reservations turn into firm orders at launch pricing.
A ramp that the company has called back-half weighted leaves the 2026 delivery target, guided at 62,000 to 67,000 vehicles, dependent on the second half of the year.
