A Rivian senior manager said the company’s R2 SUV is “coming to life on the assembly line” in a LinkedIn post on Sunday, adding to signals that production of deliverable units is underway ahead of a formal announcement.
The LinkedIn post by Omar EL-Q., a Senior Manager of Machine Learning and AI at Rivian, adds to a pattern of employee-level signals indicating the company has moved beyond the manufacturing validation phase and into production of deliverable R2 units.
The formal start-of-production announcement is expected at any moment.
Rivian completed its first manufacturing validation builds (MVBs) of the R2 in mid-January.
Those pre-production vehicles were used to test factory equipment and processes, not for customer delivery.
Three months later, with employee deliveries confirmed for this month and VIN-sequenced vehicles already being driven cross-country, Sunday’s post points to final production units rolling off the line.
The image shared in Sunday’s post was originally published by Rivian on February 24 as part of a blog post titled “R2: Built to Overdeliver.”
The photo shows multiple R2 bodies suspended on an overhead conveyor in the general assembly section of the plant.
Omar EL-Q.
Omar has been at Rivian since March 2020, making him one of the longer-tenured employees at the Normal plant.
Before joining Rivian, he served as Engineering Program Manager at K-Tec Systems in Ferndale, Michigan.
Prior to that, he worked at MARTIN Technologies — MARTIN Motorsports, where he designed and developed testing and assembly methods for OEM vehicles including GM, FCA, Ford, and Nissan, among others, per his LinkedIn profile.
Where R2 Production Stands
As EV reported last week, one of the very first production R2s — identified as VIN number five — was spotted at a charging station in Kearney, Nebraska, being driven from the Normal plant to Rivian’s Irvine, California, headquarters by an employee.
The Glacier White unit, fitted with all-terrain tyres, came off the line on a Friday, according to a post on RivianForums.
Chief Software Officer Wassym Bensaid confirmed last week that the first R2 units will be delivered to employees in April.
The company emailed all staff about an R2 employee delivery programme covering Launch Edition vehicles, with both Rivian and Rivian-VW Technologies Group joint venture employees eligible.
Bensaid said last month that employees would receive the first units and drive them for several months before customer deliveries begin.
Customer deliveries are scheduled to start by the “end of spring,” with the R2 Performance Launch Edition at $57,990 the first trim to reach buyers.
A sales representative at Rivian‘s King of Prussia Mall showroom told a customer in February that deliveries were expected to begin in mid-April, as EV reported at the time.
Rivian has not yet issued a formal start-of-production announcement.
R2 Specs and Pricing
The R2 Performance starts at $57,990, excluding a $1,495 destination charge.
Its dual-motor all-wheel-drive system produces 656 horsepower and 609 lb-ft of torque, with a 0-to-60 mph time of 3.6 seconds and an EPA-estimated range of up to 330 miles.
The launch trim is offered with a limited-time Launch Package that includes a lifetime subscription to Autonomy+, Rivian‘s advanced driver-assistance system.
The company began charging for the software in early April, introducing a subscription at $49.99 per month and a full purchase option at $2,500.
Two additional variants were confirmed at the March 12 SXSW launch event: a Premium trim at $53,990 expected in late 2026 with 450 horsepower and 537 lb-ft of torque, and the Standard variant at approximately $45,000, not expected until late 2027.
A Gen 3 autonomy stack with LiDAR is planned for R2 vehicles starting in late 2026. Launch units ship with Gen 2 hardware.
Production Targets
Rivian reaffirmed its full-year delivery guidance of 62,000 to 67,000 vehicles after reporting 10,365 deliveries in Q1 2026 — a quarter that included no R2 units.
The reaffirmed target means Rivian needs to deliver between 51,635 and 56,635 vehicles over the remaining nine months, implying an average of approximately 17,200 to 18,900 per quarter — roughly 1.7 to 1.8 times the Q1 rate.
Management has said R1S, R1T, and commercial van volumes should remain roughly in line with 2025’s 42,247 units, implying 20,000 to 25,000 R2 deliveries this year.
Rivian‘s Founder and CEO RJ Scaringe told CNBC that the R2 will make up the “majority” of Rivian‘s volume by end of 2027.
Production at the Normal plant will start on one shift before adding a second later this year. The facility has capacity for 215,000 vehicles annually, including up to 155,000 R2s.
Between April and May, Rivian is taking the R2 on a tour across seven US cities, with demo drives expected at select Rivian Spaces around July.
Last week, the company launched “Camp Rivian Powered by AutoCamp” at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival as one of the sponsors of the event.
