Rivian plans to deliver the first units of its R2 SUV to customers ‘by June’, the company told the local media outlet WGLT during a tour of its Illinois EV plant.
The first manufacturing validation builds of the mid-size SUV drove off the production line earlier this month.
“As a result, the first R2s — test models called manufacturing validation build vehicles — drove off the line earlier this month, with the first customer deliveries expected by June,” WGLT wrote.
“The biggest challenge was just the pace and the speed and making sure we kept the teams motivated and driving forward to that,” the company’s Vice President for Production Facilities Tony Sanger told WGLT during the tour.
Last Friday, Rivian said in a new blog post that production of customer units would begin “this spring.”
Throughout 2025, founder and CEO RJ Scaringe has repeatedly reaffirmed that production and deliveries would occur in the first half of this year.
“We start deliveries in the first half of next year, which means we have to start building what we call saleable units in the early part of next year,” Scaringe told The Verge in October.
The R2 represents a critical product for the Irvine-based EV maker, which unveiled the mid-size SUV in March 2024 alongside the smaller R3 and off-road R3X variants.
Originally planned for a 2025 launch at a new Georgia factory, manufacturing delays and the priority of scaling R1 production pushed the timeline to 2026, with the Normal plant now set to build the vehicle.
$1.5 Billion Expansion
The electric automaker is starting 2026 with 2.6 million square feet of new space in Normal, where the R2 will be made.
Construction took only 11 months with a $1.5 billion investment.
“When Rivian decided to pivot to Normal, I mobilized my entire team to put the project in Georgia on hold and focus solely on how do we build and launch R2s here in Normal?” Sanger said.
“It was a pretty intensive process. The first 90 days, our teams were collectively digging in. What does this look like? How big is it? Where do we need to site it?” — the VP added.
Sanger said the company worked closely with utilities Ameren and Nicor to accelerate the project.
His team also secured a special permit from IDOT to build a tunnel under Rivian Motorway connecting the new supplier park and logistics building to the main property, using precast tunnel segments made in Illinois.
“Because of that tunnel, the trucks that leave these docks headed for NN2 can be there in a matter of 2-3 minutes, versus if they had to go out on the highway, wait for a light or go through the roundabout, that would have been 6 to 8-minute travel time,” Sanger said. “So again, we’re finding ways to make the factory much more efficient.”
The new supplier park and logistics building is jointly occupied by Rivian and its suppliers.
Its north side includes a new plastic stamp shop that makes parts for R1 and R2, while the middle is occupied by suppliers including Adient for seats and OPmobility for bumpers — according to the report.
Construction & Production
Sanger emphasized that construction could not disrupt Rivian‘s existing R1 production.
“It was in setting the mindset for every contractor that showed up on site that the most important thing you have to do every day — after being safe — is you have to ensure that the plant remains operational,” Sanger said.
“So we would do a lot of pre-planning with anything that might have an impact on operations, working closely with operations to make sure that all of those things didn’t happen,” he added.
Sanger described January 15 as a milestone day when the first R2 manufacturing validation build vehicles came off the line, with founder and CEO Scaringe present to mark the occasion.
“It was fantastic to see,” Sanger said. “It was kind of a culmination of everything we’ve been driving for the last 18 months.”
80% of R1 at Half the Cost
The R2’s lower cost is intended to be one of its main selling points. As one engineer put it to Sanger, customers get 80% of an R1 at half the cost.
“It’s working very closely to balance the amount of automation with the amount of precision that you need from the humans in the space, to be able to deliver a vehicle that is easier to manufacture than the R1, and also do it with slightly less components in the vehicle,” Sanger said.
Despite confirmations of an entry-level trim priced at $45,000, Rivian is expected to begin production with a higher-priced version of the SUV.
During its Autonomy & AI Day event in December, the company revealed R2 builds equipped with LiDAR, marking the first confirmation that its vehicles will include the sensor suite.
Route 66 Validation
In a blog post Friday, Rivian said the early builds “represent an important phase in development where we validate and perfect the quality of vehicles coming off the line at our factory.”
“As we head toward the start of production in spring, this continuous feedback loop of testing, refining and updating ensures we are delivering repeatable quality at scale building vehicles that exceed our customers’ expectations,” the company said.
Scaringe posted images last week showing the camouflaged mid-size SUV charging at a Rivian station during a promotional road trip along Route 66.
Emmanuel Ibarra, Rivian‘s senior engineer and vehicle driver on the Route 66 trip, said the validation process ensures the company delivers “repeatable quality at scale building vehicles that exceed our customers’ expectations.”
