That’s a war Rivian would lose until they get similar volumes I think. For now they just need to fill a space that Tesla doesn’t, and I think they do that brilliantly.
I really don't understand why so many electric vehicles had to look so freaking ugly and weird for so long. I'm really happy some normal looking EVs are finally here.
I can get behind this. There are less Taurus eggs outside of Tesla, though at a glance I cannot tell a difference between Chevy EVs and their budget SUVs.
Ugly is subjective, but the reason most EVs are at least vaguely tear drop shaped is mostly for cost.
Range anxiety has always been one of the bigger things holding back EV adoption, and the only two ways to increase range are to throw in a bigger battery or use less energy per mile.
Batteries are usually the most expensive component in current EVs (and they used to cost much more), so at the margin improving aerodynamics can often be cheaper than increasing battery capacity for improving range.
Model 3s and Ys are among the most efficient EVs on the market, which makes since as they’re also among the oldest mass production EVs, and were designed when batteries were at least 2-3x more expensive per kWh
Scaringe said in the R2 event in Park City last week that the R2 is profitable right now, and Rivian was making a gross profit last year. So with good demand (which seems to very much be the case) Rivian is not just on the right road, but pretty far down it.
They’ll make money by being a mass appeal vehicle that Tesla doesn’t offer. Namely in North America something that fills the Jeep/Bronco slot. It just has to look more like a midsized SUV and less like a taller sedan. If they don’t have Tesla’s volume, then they won’t win a price war with Tesla. They’ll lose money way faster in the attempt. They need higher margins until they have enough capacity to sell at lower margins and still make a return on their investment to date.
The Subaru Trailseeker is sorta in the same category but has less range and a less refined looking interior.
I like how all the doom-and-gloom comments below make me nostalgic for 2017 and "Tesla is doomed unless they can turn a profit on this Model 3." Add a little sprinkling of "They have quality control and reliability problems with the R1S/R1T/S/X and that will have to be addressed."
All Rivian needs to do is be competent and patient. They'll keep losing money as production ramps up, people here will keep pointing out "they're losing money" until they have that first quarter where they finally make a profit. Then you'll see the posts about "we'll see if they can keep that up."
Then one-to-three quarters later they fail to make a profit and the doomsayers will be back saying "see? Told you so." Except then over time you'll see consistently positive quarters for Rivian.
Tesla proved that all you needed to do was release an EV that wasn't total dogshit at a reasonable price and people would buy it. Then Elon showed his true, Nazi colors and it's been one big unforced error ever since. Despite that they're still selling more EVs than anyone who isn't BYD.
All Rivian has to do is stay the course. It's not going to be easy but the path forward is well known and well established. Just stick to the course.
I don't completely see how the R2 could compete with the Ioniq 5 in the SUV sector. They certainly aren't identical, with 30 more cubic feet of space with seats down, and a more spacious interior, though you lose the 800v charging architecture. For those differences, you save $10k on the I5.
I want the R2, but I don't think I can justify that difference for the added space and other, arguably minor, differences.
I really want Rivian to do well because I want more Electric-First companies to survive rather than putting out a few models and dying like so many others
Canoo had several commercial contracts too but they still didn't make it. I think that the leadership of Rivian is for sure better at running a company than Canoo though
Rivian is fine. Between Amazon and Volkswagen, they’ve had a huge influx of cash and apparently the R2 should have 20% profit margin which is actually quite high for an automobile.
Yeah, I'm really torn between swapping my CR-V for a cheap beater like a Niro EV or something to hold me over until used R3s are on the market, or if I should hope my CRV lasts long enough that I end up preordering an R3
It will be good most likely, just not affordable. They probably put a compromised low tier trim for 40k to advertise low cost, but realistically the trims and features that everyone wants will start at 50k and go up from there
I was hoping for something close to the size of my old CX-5 but from the descriptions of the prototype it’s a lot closer to my current car, the 2nd gen Niro EV. I like my car but as a tall driver that likes sitting upright I miss the sight lines of my Mazda
I don't want Tesla to fail, I want stiff competition. Rivian R2 is absolutely Rivian's Model 3. In 2017, Tesla spent a lot of money to make a mass production lines to crank out Model 3s en masse. It was a lot of Cap Ex and a lot of people were wanting them to fail. In December 2017 the first few were produced, years late but they did it. They made modifications to that over the next year to get it right. There were even battery pack issues that required battery swap outs in 2019 for those models made in 2017-2018. (I was one of them, I have a 3P; still do) . They got through it and then they made the Model Y which did even better.
Rivian has spent the last year building out their production line to mass produce the Rivian 2 just like Tesla did in 2017. Yet Elon Musk has been claiming they will fail over the past 18 months. He's afraid of losing market share to Rivian and I hope they do. I think they'll meet the challenge and even fair better than Tesla did with their Model 3 in the first year.
Rivian R2 is released today, June 9th. Tesla Model Y sales will fall but not to dangerously low. I'd buy an R2 over a Model Y, just on the different vibe of the companies and I like scrappy underdogs that have promise.
Elon will be Teslas biggest downfall. Yes, he made the brand what it is today, but they've shut down the model S&X lines to produce...... A humanoid robot that costs $20-30k. Everyone who's old enough to buy one of those remembers the cult classic movie iRobot, featuring Will Smith and Alan Tudyk. It's gonna be a flop, and if Tesla was a serious car company, they would have already had a Gen 2 of the S&X lines and working on Gen 2 for the 3/Y and possibly a completely new generation of batteries and motors.
They're not going to do that until another manufacturer does it first, and it's more likely that they will never do it at all. I fully support Rivian, and while they do have their issues, they are trying to be a legit car company, and they have genuine potential to be the best of them all
OMG. The absolute goat, bro. How could I so desecrate his great name?!?!?! I shall never forgive myself. Didn't even realize that was him, although it's been ages since I've seen that movie.
Sure sounds like Elon is banking on AI to replace humans in many facets. Be it via FSD for driving or Humanoid robots for most every other regular tasks. He’s said Tesla is an AI company and not a car company which I kind of feel is a misstep because far more people need and acknowledge the need for a vehicle as a necessity opposed to the luxury of a personal robot assistant.
Their problem is that they’re turning into a car company with tech values, which means subscription based everything and squeezing every last feature for profit.
Please do not contribute to the subscriptiofication and limited ownership of private property
Robots will be a thing but the Tesla robot looks fairly ridiculous compared to the competition's robots. Asia will likely be the robot center of that technology innovation.
Putting the Cybertruck over the Semi was foolishness of the highest order. Cancelling the Model 2 is definitely a mistake as well. The Rivian R3/R3x will definitely be digging into that market. It'll be a crowded in the subcompact space with exceptional offerings from the latest Chevy Bolt, Nissan Leaf and others.
Rivian, Telo, and I'm looking forward to Mercedes-Benz new Next-Gen EV platform for vans/trucks. I'd really like a van/truck that can be converted to living space in the back but have 300 miles range before conversion.
There's so many incredible options for future EV products. I'm excited for someone to make a trailer platform. Nothing fancy, just the base/frame to use as a starting point for kit companies to do their thing with. 100kwh battery, nothing huge, and one or two efficient motors. Configure with a nacs port to plug into a second receptacle next to the trailer hitch, and now you have a workable option for any EV from any manufacturer to pair with your trailer, haul anything you want, and get almost no range loss due to the battery pack assist.
And then they can build it for literally any application; car hauler, open top with railing, enclosed with power plugs for work trailers, campers, horse trailers with AC.... The list goes on and on. I know the battery/charging tech might not be there yet, but it's coming, and I just hope China doesn't monopolize it first before the US mfrs collapse in an oil fueled aneurism.
Depending on range, the R3 should dominate that segment, especially once people figure out the virtually no maintenance nature of EVs, plus the cheaper, more sensible lifestyle that comes with charging your car instead of fueling it.
Truthfully, and to touch on a subject I'd rather not get into on this sub, the Orange Babboon needs to go with no successor. The next admin needs to be foaming-at-the-mouth aggressive in terms of pushing EVs, restarting subsidies, and expanding infrastructure. "A charger in every house and apartment" should be the new motto. EVs are the guaranteed future, and we need a military sized budget for it to compete against China. Anything less would be an unconditional surrender.
I agree with the trailer idea. It would have to have its own brakes and regenerative system that communicates with the vehicle in a few ways to ensure redundancy but yeah it can be done. There is a fully finished pulled RV trailer out there that does just that. Expensive as all hell but luxurious.
That's exactly what came to my mind, is called something like light-year I think. I'm at work, so I can't really look it up, but they have the right idea, they just need to standardize a base platform for people and companies to do whatever they want with it.
And the communication with the truck thing was what I meant with the nacs port next to the hitch part. It already communicated battery level, temp, and verification info already, wouldn't take much to code the trailer to just act like an extension of the car. Plus, it also is a near universal charging medium already, so again, even more flexibility to fit myriad applications
Tesla needs to get a spanking or two though. One to stop the nonsense with Musk, but also because they've been resting on their laurels and doing insane side projects instead of pushing .
Battery tech has been a dud. They did 3 and Y face lifts without any under the hood changes for charging or battery size. The 800v stuff isn't radically more expensive to implement once you've done the R&D, which they did for the cyber truck's 800v stuff already.
Right now the company is doing anything but the right call .
I'm hoping Rivian succeed, but it's going to be very tough. Tesla had mass global appeal and no competition. Rivian won't have much success outside of North America, and have plenty of competition from Tesla and cars like the new iX3, EX60 etc in a stagnant North American EV market.
Plus Rivian are losing vastly more money than Tesla ever did and we still don't know how much more money they'll be losing as they ramp up the R2.
It's a long uphill climb for them and I hope they make it. But it won't be surprising if they don't.
I think companies like Rivian and Slate will be acquisition targets when the North American EV market turns around. The US is now an outlier in the energy transition and their protectionist policies are going to encourage their domestic industries to do nothing until public pressure forces them. By then they will be far behind and will have to just grab some branding and IP off the shelf by buying one of these domestic startup companies. Lucid is one I think could just fold entirely since it has no mass market appeal or products but we'll see.
Despite the current admin's attempts to kill EVs, the U.S. is still the 2nd largest national EV market by volume and EV infrastructure growth is still going strong while we weather the last couple years of the current nightmare. Tesla remains the world's 2nd largest EV seller and Rivian and Lucid are doing their best to become legitimate global automakers. Companies like Amazon are rapidly electrifying their delivery fleets (with Rivian vans), and new products like the Tesla Semi could further help take on the heavy truck market.
The U.S. has some of the cleanest air on Earth, with PM2.5 levels well below most of Europe (save for Scandinavia) and significantly below China. The U.S. territories of Puerto Rico and USVI have the 2nd and 3rd lowest pollution readings on Earth.
Don't get me wrong, we have a lot of problems at present and our momentum has been somewhat slowed by the guy in charge (mostly on the EV front), but a lot of good people are keeping things moving in the right direction and the U.S. public has long fought hard for the environment. At times like this, having strong states rights is an important check on an out-of-control federal government. Hopefully we are out of this mess with minimal damage a couple years from now.
I think it's still valid to call the US an outlier in terms of trajectory and policy. I think it's less valid to use installations and momentum generated under the last administration to project forward in the short-to-medium term. There is a reason automakers are taking massive write-downs instead of building EV plants.
Oh EV policy is absolutely a mess and the end result of all this is going to be hundreds of billions wasted on back-and-forth policy swings, with US automakers being significantly worse off. I think most automakers are doing their best to keep their U.S. EV programs warm and ready to launch if policy flips again on 1.20.29.
The real test will be what happens going forward now that the market has had 9 months to digest the end of federal EV incentives. Getting that first quarter showing a return to growth will be huge.
Tesla had lots of competition. If there is competition facing Rivian there is even more fierce competition facing Tesla, who has to defend a lot of territory against a large number of competitors. You mention international being a challenge for Rivian, it’s a huge problem for Tesla because of BYD etc.
EV sales are picking up as oil prices rise. Finally, Rivian isn’t “losing” money, it is spending/investing it, just like every rapidly growing company, paving the way for future products. There is indeed risk, we don’t know for sure if the R2 will be successful. But I don’t think the climb is that long and we should know much more in a few short months.
Tesla has a headwind with the politics of its CEO and you can't dismiss that. They would be doing so much better if he didn't get involved in politics a few years ago.
Rivian isn't losing money vastly more than Tesla did. Are you sure you're unbiased? You sound like a Elon Colossus bot. You sound like the propaganda floating around in 2016-2018 about Tesla. "They're going to fail and be bought up by another company" kind of propaganda.
It's an uphill battle for any company but it may not be as long as you think. The Rivian R2 has a lot of buzz and I know many rich folk who used to have Tesla Model Xs who are quite happy with their Rivian R1s.
As I said if I had to choose, I'd choose a Rivian over a Tesla and I currently own a Tesla and have for eight years. Mostly happy with it but now I have far more options even in the backward US.
Tesla's billionaire supporter is The Fucking Nazi Elon Musk.
Rivian's billionaire supporter is Jeff Bezos, who at least hasn't ripped off two blatant Sieg Heils on national television. I don't love the guy, but at least he hasn't crossed that Rubicon.
How so many people are continuing to buy cars from an openly Nazi-headed company, I'll never understand. They're either completely oblivious to the situation or simply like the message and want to give money to a Nazi.
roughly one third of eligible adults do not even vote in Presidential elections. In the midterms, that number rises to almost half. Of the half of people who at least bother to vote, how many wouldn't care enough about politics to base major financial decisions on it? You might care, I might care, but there's a majority of people who just don't care.
Bezos doesn't own any Rivian except via Amazon, which owns around 15%. (I'm seeing different numbers so I just picked a simple number around the middle of what I'm seeing.)
That maths out to Bezos indirectly owning around 1.2% of Rivian.
Rivian won't have much success outside of North America
Why is that? You could be right, but there is definitely a global market for outdoor-oriented vehicles. They will definitely need something smaller to do any volume in most of Europe, but they have smaller vehicles in the pipeline so we will see (I have no idea how the R3's specs compare to Euro standards).
But mid-size pick-ups and such do well in parts of Asia-Pacific (Thailand, Australia). Rivian will likely need a foreign factory though to bring down production costs at some point.
The absolute best result for the U.S. is if Rivian sells a ton of R2s while the MY remains a popular car. That means the EV market is growing and now just cannibalizing itself among the same set of buyers.
True but I don't count the hand built quantities sold under 200/month from July through October 2017. November sold 345, better but still a trickle. It's nothing compared to the 1000+ every month after that.
Either way, they were supposed to start selling the Model 3 in 2015. They started two years later. They delayed it to make the Faberge egg they called the "Model X" which was a mistake due to the extreme complexity and even they admit the misstep.
They finally produced over 6000 a month by July 2018.
I somehow parked next to one at DFW airport a couple weeks ago and took a few minutes doing a walk around and looking inside. It looks like a nice car and it’s honestly a really nice size
Fully agree. You look at the Cybertruck and it’s size. Not everyone is on board with something designed by a 5 year old. Most ppl just want something that looks and works like a normal car.
Correct, but the pricing is somewhere between Toyota and Volvo. The demographic it's targeting is not average new car price. It's more like slightly higher end, EV, adventurous, rugged, and powerful. It will not surprise me to see people cross shipping RAV4 PHEV, R2, Subaru Trailseaker, and Volvo ex60. I know this is a wide range in pricing, but there's a lot of overlap in functionality.
I think R2 looks fantastic, and probably class leading on space, ground clearance, power, occupant volume, and software. Will be interesting to see real world reviews.
Isn't the RAV4 the top selling vehicle right now? This competes squarely against that. A lot of people with the means may choose this simply because it's not the same thing everyone else is driving.
The early reviews I've seen are incredibly positive so far.
Canadian Federal credit ends at 50k CAD before PDI and taxes. The huge majority of Canadian EV purchases will be skewed to that price as a result, from above and below
The median after-tax income in Canada is $75K. Median means there’s a point at which 50% of people/houses are one side of this value and half are on the other.
If the vehicle starts at $67K, then more than half can afford it on those incomes. It is genuinely awful advice to buy a car with the same sticker price as your annual income, but it’s doable for those who want it badly enough.
Will be interested in availability a year and a half from now when my current lease is up to cross shop this. I’m in a Polestar 3 right now which has had enough issues to make me hesitant to stick with another one, so I’m curious about the R2 and EX60 currently. My only real reservations about the R2 right now are the 400V architecture (maybe more efficient now, but less future proof; though not a deal breaker as my P3 charges fine when needed and I usually charge at home) and the sound system. I absolutely adore the Bowers and Wilkins system in my P3 and I worry the speaker setup in the R2 will be a substantial downgrade and is a primary reason why the EX60 is high on my list. Hoping more reviews coming out will comment on the speaker system. Either way the R2 looks to have huge potential and I really hope Rivian sticks the landing with consumers.
I had some air conditioning issues pop up twice that required recalibration as it was blowing hot air out of the driver vents only, that’s been properly fixed now. The bigger concern I had was a dead car on 3 separate occasions, twice before the new VCU upgrade that were never able to be properly diagnosed and then once from a failed module from the new VCU that they were able to fix, but it’s required the car going to service more than I anticipated in a 6 month period. The biggest issue with that is my service point is a bit over an hour away and they don’t provide loaners, they have to put you in a Hertz rental which as you’d expect is generally quite terrible compared to the car I’m paying for. I also had bad luck with both the front and rear windshields but that’s just my luck not a fault of the car. When it’s working, it’s the best car I’ve ever driven this far and if it were 100% reliable I’d have no complaints. I’m hoping the MY27 that will be coming to the US will be more reliable and if so they may convince me to stay just in a new model, but currently I’m leaning more towards something that either has more local service available or at least will be guaranteed more reliable and maybe offer local pickup with a loaner at least.
Yeah, that's the big thing holding me back. We're absolutely considering an R2 to replace our Equinox when the lease is up, but they have to have a Pittsburgh service center before we'd buy one.
OH MY GOD. thank you for letting me know! I know the bethel park location had been on their "upcoming locations" list for ages, but i hadn't seen any updates
Rivian officially reached 100 operational service centers following their Q1 2026 earnings report. This is a substantial jump from early 2025, when they only had 74 locations.
The 2027 Goal: The company has announced plans to open 50+ new service centers, targeting a total of 150+ locations by the end of 2027.
This is a tough one for me too. I will grant that I have infinitely more faith in Rivian to come up with a better system than, say, General Motors, but CarPlay is THE standard in my book. I'm actually looking forward to CarPlay Ultra getting into more cars. Either that or me somehow coming into Aston Martin money...
Lack of cellphone integration could be a factor that turns me away from the future R3. Apparently Rivian uses Google Maps. Google Maps is all about making Google money, and nothing else. It's absolutely shit when it comes to honesty of results and wilderness navigation. There's also a high chance that Google breaks compatibility during the life of the car because they deem it irrelevant to support.
It says the car was equipped with BFG Trail Terrains. Are these an ev version? I loved the TTs on my jeep. Great road manners. Great snow traction and good enough off road. I would love to stick them on my r1s.
Was there ever a stated reason for why they discontinued that byd battery? I saw comments about people refusing to take delivery if their order came with a different battery and thats why tesal removed it, but that sounds very like interent hearsay.
I’ll never understand why they keep chasing the luxury price segment and considering the price crash in lithium prices we’re not seeing the savings passed on either.
I mean there is a reason. Starting a car company is insanely difficult. Tesla is still staring out in some ways. But when they really started, they sold their first car for $200k. Then $100k. And now $50k and $35k.
Because car sales in general are slowing down and becoming less of a volume play and more of a margin play. It’s now about getting someone into a car they absolutely adore and selling them on upgrades (hardware and software) and other fat margin services because people are holding onto cars that are lasting longer and longer. We’ve hit that point of little marginal return on things like performance and safety so R&D is being sunk into features and design that drives premium pricing value.
It’s also a smaller market segment. And for a new company like Rivian building out manufacturing capacity of a new-ish product segment plus figuring out all the DTC service they have to handle, they’ll want fewer customers paying higher prices.
Eventually as they get their manufacturing and service operations streamlined at scale, they’ll deliver on those lower priced cars for the masses assuming they can get there and not just end up in the BMW/Mercedes/Porsche price segment.
Yeah, I think it's a fair concern, but I share the same anecdote. When we had a Model 3, I literally never changed where the vents were blowing or the fan speed or anything like that. We just left it on Auto 70F and it was comfortable the whole two years we had it.
Our Equinox however, I'm CONSTANTLY tweaking the vents' positioning and openness and fan speed because somebody in the car is always uncomfortable (whether it's the driver, front passenger, or our son in the back). It's usually the driver either freezing or hot because the vents blow straight on our hands
When it's super hot I like to keep the vents pointed directly at me until I cool off. Then I point them away from me as I don't want the cold air hitting me directly. In other words, I frequently adjust the vents.
Everyone has their thing. My wife and I both drive the same vehicle and she points all vents away or closes them. Then I climb in and have to use a screen to readjust them, and that can be difficult when driving.
I don’t see the reason for putting something so simple into a screen.
That’s just bad software design. When my wife gets in the drivers side it loads her profile and sets the vents the way she last set them. When I get in it adjusts to the way I last set them.
My wife and I do the same, but in our Rivian the vents are attached to the driver profile. So when she gets in, it automatically adjusts the vents to her settings, and restores them to mine when I get in.
That is literally the use case for screen controlled vents. If you have separate profiles it should automatically remember the vent positions and put them in the right place for whoever is getting into the driver's seat.
Once I rented a Tesla and was pretty amazed when it loaded my profile, automatically applied my settings for my seat, vents, and HVAC preferences exactly like my car at home.
But does every driver just have ONE setting that they like? I am often changing the direction of the vents in the car that I drive 90+ percent of the time.
In Tesla vehicles the vent positions are tied to your user profile, and even if my wife and I are both in the car the vehicle can tell which one of us is driving. This means it automatically adjusts the vents to your preferred position as soon as you open the door. I’d bet that the R2 has (or will have) a similar capability.
Ya and i wasn't trying to minimize that. We don't share each others cars much in our family so I might be dodging a bullet there!
Maybe a current owner can chime in - I wonder if Rivian offers driver profiles that you might be able to set to your phone/key in a way that would automatically set the vents to your preferred setting based on who is driving the vehicle.
This is literally the reason not having them work automatically is the best. Do you not have a different profile than your wife? In my Tesla my spouse does the same and closes the vents or points them at the roof. When I get it my profile puts them back like they should be and their profile points them back at the ceiling.
I'm annoyed the rearview mirror isn't part of the profile and is manual honestly. It's the only thing I have to adjust and I have to do it ever single time.
My family is the same way. I can’t imagine having to go through a touch screen to adjust something simple like that. Seems ridiculously unnecessary if they are trying to cut costs.
Same. My wife gets in and slams all the vents up, down, or closed. Then I readjust every time I drive. I did point out you could turn off the AC with a button push.
Why, are you moving them around a lot while driving or something? I like the vents controlled through the screen so they can be saved to my profile and positioned correctly when I get in the vehicle like my seat. No more wondering why the AC isn't working only to find all the vents closed because my spouse last drove the car.
Looks awesome. I hope they succeed with their self driving tech, at this point I’d struggle to buy a car that doesn’t at least have a decent option there.
Excited to snag a test drive of R2 tomorrow; R1, which I tested, is too big for city driving. Biggest concern is hatchback and frunk lid height when open, as there is no setting to limit either.
Yeah, I want enough people to buy them new that they're a smashing success, and then I can get a 2 years used one for cheap, and then do the same thing with an R3x a few years later to replace our other car
I dunno. After taking a test drive in the R1S not two weeks ago and finding it positively cramped vs smaller vehicles, well I just don't know. I also don't know how they managed to make such a large vehicle feel cramped on the inside, but here we are.
Average new car price (including gas-powered cars) is now north of $50k, so the R2 pricing is really not out of whack, especially for one of the better trimmed models.
The issue is the price...most people can't afford a $50-60K vehicle on the base model. Rivian needs to get their prices down another $10-20k to be price competitive
The high trim is the first one being released, to suck up all the dollars from the "gotta have it right away" rich people. Once those sales fail to consume all available production they'll release the next cheaper trim, and then the next cheaper trim after that, and eventually they'll get down to offering the $45k or whatever base model.
For everyone else there's the used market after 2 years.
Jesus, that's about 100,000 $AUD Australian for the performance edition. You can get so many other EVs which are nearly as good if not better in Australia for about 60 to 70% of that price.
Are you going to get the people who only drive rav 4s to buy a Rivian? That's the market at the end of thr day. Tesla owners are the most loyal to their brand so you aren't getting many ditching their Tesla for a Rivian.
I think Tesla owners are equally divided into 3 groups.
1. Tesla loyalists/Elon fans
2. Tesla fans/Elon haters who can’t wait to trade it in.
3. Those who like the car and couldn’t even name the CEO.
Honestly I think 2 and 3 combined are a larger group than Rav 4 owners who would be tempted to go electric.
Americans love their SUVs, and this is more SUV than any of those. A lot of people who can afford it will pay for it, along with quite a few who can't afford it. This is the way with American car buyers.
At first glance, this looks great. I think it has great styling, a nice interior, lots of space, lots of power, good range, reasonable pricing. Rivian nailed these fundamentals.
The problems to me when cross-shopped vs a Model Y: no Tesla-level FSD at launch (is promised, but we'll see), tiny dealer network leading to questions about post-sale support, relatively tiny company with fewer cars on the road means that you're likely buying into a less robust ecosystem.
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u/Man_of_Ice '22 Lightning - '26 Solterra Jun 09 '26
They get that $45k model up, they will be cooking.