Rivian pushes back launch of smaller, more affordable ‘R2’ EV platform to 2026

Rivian Automotive, electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer headquartered in Irvine, California, has confirmed that it has pushed back its R2 EV platform to 2026. The so-called upcoming “R2” platform will be used to underpin smaller as well as more affordable EVs in the company lineup. Initially, the manufacturer had intention to launch the R2 platform in 2025 at a new plant in Georgia. However, the company has now confirmed that it has pushed back the launch of the smaller platform from 2025 to 2026.

The R2 platform, as mentioned above, has been designed for smaller and more affordable EVs, which will likely include both small pickups and SUVs. The Georgia manufacturing facility, where the EVs underpinned by the R2 platform will be produced, is being built at a cost of $5 billion.

Confirming the delay in the launch of the R2, Rivian said, “We continue to work with the state of Georgia and the Joint Development Authority and expect our R2 platform will launch in 2026. We expect the R2 platform will unlock a global market opportunity for Rivian and are excited about the early development work that is underway.”

The announcement emerged on the sidelines of the release of Rivian’s third-quarter (Q3) earnings report, which revealed that the company suffered a net loss of $1.72 billion from operations and revenue of around $536 million.

Compared to Q3 2021’s net loss of $1.23 billion, Rivian has suffered a bigger loss. The quarterly revenue also failed to meet analysts’ expectations of $551 million. In the report, the company also revealed that it ended the three-month period of this year with $13.8 billion in cash, which is enough to fund the manufacturer’s expansion operations through 2025.

Sharing important stats, Rivian also revealed that it built a record number of 7,363 EVs during the July through September period of this year, up 67 per cent from the corresponding period of 2021. Deliveries to customers settled at 6,584 units. To provide a big boost to production, the company has also added a second manufacturing shift in its Normal Factory, which seems to be a key development in the direction of ramping up production of R1 platform vehicles. For the whole of 2022, Rivian has set a target to produce at least 25,000 EVs, including the R1T pickup, R1S SUV and EDV delivery van. As the company has already produced 14,317 units, it will have to build almost 11,000 units to hit the target.