Rivian and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker are scheduled to make a joint Rivian R2 announcement at the company’s Normal, Illinois manufacturing plant later this Tuesday at 10:20 am Central Time.
The major event whose specific subject remains undisclosed but has sparked widespread speculation among investors and reservation holders as it has been known since last week that the first customer deliveries were just days away.
The Illinois Governor’s Daily Public Schedule confirms that Pritzker will deliver remarks at the event in the R2 Building at 100 Rivian Motorway in Normal.
The Governor’s office has not disclosed the specific subject of the announcement.
The event arrives at a moment of accelerating commercial momentum for Rivian, with the company having officially started R2 production approximately one month ago — on April 22 — despite a tornado that tore part of the roof off the Normal plant section dedicated to R2 production earlier in April.
Rivian shares were trading at $12.74 in pre-announcement trading, down 4.57%, according to retail trader posts circulating ahead of the event.
The R2 Production Status
Rivian officially began R2 production on April 22 at its Normal, Illinois manufacturing plant — a date that arrived on schedule despite the tornado damage to the factory roof.
VIN number five was spotted at a charging station in Kearney, Nebraska in mid April, according to community reports, indicating that the internal employee delivery program was already underway as the vehicle was being driven cross-country from the Normal plant to Rivian’s Irvine, California headquarters.
The R2 configurator went live last Friday, allowing reservation holders to begin previewing trim, color, and configuration options.
Chief Financial Officer Claire McDonough told Reuters that customers would receive invitations to configure their R2s starting in June 2026 “on a rolling basis.”
The R2 Pricing Structure
Rivian is launching the R2 with a Launch Edition starting at $57,990 — nearly $13,000 above the $45,000 price tag the company spent years promoting during the original R2 unveiling in March 2024.
The R2 Premium trim is scheduled to launch later in 2026 at $53,990.
The R2 Standard variant is expected in the first half of 2027 at $48,490.
The promised $45,000 base R2 has not yet been given a delivery timeline, with Rivian stating only that it will arrive after the initial launch sequence.
The R2 Production Target
Rivian has guided to delivering between 20,000 and 25,000 R2 vehicles by the end of 2026, according to the company’s investor communications.
Chief Financial Officer Claire McDonough told a Bank of America summit earlier in 2026 that the company expected to build 200,000 R2s annually once production reached full capacity — a target that aligns with Rivian’s broader production capacity expansion at the Normal plant.
The R2 collected more than 68,000 reservations within 24 hours of its original unveiling in March 2024, each secured with a refundable $100 deposit.
The Illinois Investment Context
The R2 production at Normal is anchored on the most significant state incentive package in Rivian’s history.
In 2024, Governor Pritzker joined Rivian to announce a historic $1.5 billion investment from the company to build the R2 model at its Normal facility, with the commitment creating more than 550 full-time jobs over five years.
The Illinois investment was supported by an $827 million 30-year incentive package, with the majority of funding derived from Reimagining Energy and Vehicles (REV Illinois) tax credits. Through REV, Rivian is eligible to receive tax benefits totaling nearly $634 million over the next three decades.
The REV agreement specifies the retention of at least 6,000 jobs for the entirety of the agreement period.
Rivian’s $1.5 billion investment expanded the total Normal facility capacity to 215,000 units per year, with a focus on the R2 SUV.
The Supplier Park Expansion
In May 2025, Rivian and Governor Pritzker announced an additional $120 million investment for a 1.2 million-square-foot supplier park adjacent to the Normal plant — supported by a $16 million state incentive package and creating nearly 100 direct jobs.
The supplier park allows Rivian to co-locate companies that produce component parts for its vehicles, with parts transported across Highway 150 to the company’s main facility for final assembly into R1 and R2 models.
In September 2025, OPmobility became the first supplier to commit to the Rivian Supplier Park, establishing its first Illinois facility to assemble bumpers for the R2 — creating 81 new full-time jobs at the location.
The supplier park construction was expected to be completed this year.
The Georgia Plant Context
Beyond the Illinois ecosystem, Rivian is also building a $5 billion plant in Georgia that broke ground in September 2025 — a facility expected to support partial operations in the third quarter of 2027 and full sales output starting in 2028.
The Georgia plant is expected to have an annual production capacity of approximately 300,000 vehicles.
The original Georgia timeline had slipped after zoning-related lawsuits delayed construction, prompting Rivian to shift R2 production from Georgia to the existing Normal, Illinois plant in March 2024 — a strategic decision that the company said would save approximately $2.25 billion and pull production forward to the first half of 2026.
The Reservation Holder Signal
Adding to the speculation that today’s announcement could mark the official start of external customer deliveries, the X user RivianTrackr has publicly confirmed in recent days that he expected to be among the first external customers to receive his R2.
“Big week. R2 configurator went live, accessories pricing dropped, Forest Green showed up in the wild, Rivian Assistant landed in 2026.15, and customer deliveries are days away,” he wrote on X last Sunday.
