For years, Rivian made one argument: Serious all-electric adventure vehicles had to cost serious money. The R1S, still one of the more capable off-roaders on any surface, starts at $75,900. The Tri Max configuration tips well past $105,000. A great SUV. Not a mass-market product. The R2 is Rivian's answer to its own problem.

This midsize, five-seat electric SUV, built on an entirely new platform, is not merely a stripped-down R1S. No, the R2 is a ground-up rethink of what a Rivian can be with one crucial target in mind: volume sales. Starting at a competitive $45,000, this is the make-or-break budget EV for the car company that initially began life as Mainstream Motors in 2009.

In the past eight years, Rivian has burned through nearly $25 billion in cash. Its historic free cash flow compared to other automakers is “bracing,” shall we say, as it has essentially spent more money over the same amount of time versus almost every pure EV maker. The company's stock price has dropped from $130 to around $16. The R1 went on sale in 2021; since then, Rivian has sold 175,000 cars. In the same period, Tesla sold 8 million.

Yes, that's an unfair comparison, but it gives some impression of the mountain Rivian's new off-roading SUV has to climb. Despite billion-dollar deals with VW Group and Uber, to survive in its current form, Rivian has to start selling cars in larger numbers. Just in the nick of time, it seems, this is precisely what the R2 has been built to do.

Does This R2 Unit Have a Bad Motivator?

No doubt burned by the serious headaches induced by launching three products at once last time, Rivian is cautiously rolling out the new R2 in four trims from now through late 2027.

The only R2 available at launch is the Performance model at $57,990, or in reality $59,485 with the mandatory $1,495 destination charge. However, it makes 656 horsepower and 609 pound-foot of torque from a dual-motor all-wheel drive setup. Zero to 60 mph is a rapid 3.6 seconds, and the EPA-estimated range is 330 miles.

The launch edition adds lifetime Autonomy+ (Rivian's L2+ hands-free, eyes-on driving system), which usually sets you back a hefty $50 per month, or a one-off outlay of $2,500, and a tow package rated at 4,400 pounds. Yes, it's not what many would describe as cheap, but the entry R1S costs $18,000 more and makes 123 fewer horsepower in base form.

The Premium model follows in late 2026 at $53,990. Same 87.9-kilo-watt-hour battery, same 330-mile range, but with 450 hp, 537 pound-foot of torque, and a 4.6-second zero-to-60 time. Still dual-motor AWD. Then the Standard Long Range model lands in early 2027 at $48,490 with a single-motor rear-wheel drive, 350 hp, and zero-to-60 in 5.9 seconds. Rivian estimates up to 345 miles on a single charge, which indeed makes it the farthest in the lineup, but only by 15 miles.

That all-important Standard model with the attractive $45,000 price ($10,000 less than a base Volvo EX40, and $5,000 less than Tesla Model Y Premium AWD) comes last, in late 2027, with a drop in range to about 275 miles. All four trims have a native North American Charging Standard (NACS) connector with access to Tesla's Supercharger network and a claimed 10-to-80-percent charge time of 29 minutes.

But here's the trouble: The initial R2s will not be technically as good as the models coming six months later or so. Why? Rivian's new, fancy RAP1 processor, a custom 5-nanometer chip delivering 1,600 TOPS (trillions of operations per second) that powers its coming Gen 3 autonomy, won't ship on R2 models until late 2026. The EVs also won't have lidar initially. So this crucially means early R2 adopters get Gen 2 hardware, not Gen 3. L2+ autonomy, not L3.

Now, Rivian is at pains to underline here that the Gen 2 Performance R2 will supposedly be capable of point-to-point driving later this year—but would you want that or rather wait a few months for the Level 3 Gen 3s packing “the most powerful combination of sensors and inference compute in consumer vehicles in North America,” according to Rivian's senior vice president of electrical hardware? I know what I'd do. I also know what Rivian wants you to do: Ignore this bothersome fact and just hand over the much-needed cash, please. Those sales targets aren't going to hit themselves.

Better Than Big Brother

Delays in Gen 3 hardware aside, Rivian has sprinkled more than a little magic dust over its R2. The Performance version actually bests the base R1S on power and range, despite that significantly lower price. Yes, the R1S has more space (three rows), and its air suspension can lift it to nearly 15 inches of clearance, as well as level the EV on sloped ground (the R2's 9.6 inches is fixed), but in almost every other area, the R2 makes a harder argument for the R1S to answer.

Over a couple of days outside Salt Lake City, Utah, I joined a brand-hosted media drive (Rivian paid for WIRED's travel expenses) and tried out the R2 on highways, mountain roads, and over some moderate off-road terrain.

The very good news is that much of what made the R1 such a hit with critics has been either retained, modified, or adapted here on the R2. The exterior design, for example, immediately mirrors its bigger brother but is cleverly not merely a shrunken version of that EV. The team has managed to reduce size to a length of 185.9 inches while keeping key proportions, so you get a five-seat SUV that is unmistakably Rivian but in no way feels diminutive or austere compared to the seven-seater.

The headlights remain determinedly cheerful, the boxy profile pleasingly rugged. The rear windscreen goes all the way down (but not on the base model), disappearing into the bodywork, which required no small amount of jiggery-pokery with the rear wiper so that it doesn't need to sit on the glass and kill the feature. Speaking of which, reminiscent of the ill-fated Fisker Ocean, one button drops all five windows at once. The frunk is eminently useable, capable of stowing a suitcase and backpack, or six grocery bags.

Inside, you still get the flashlight in the door and the large responsive central screen, but look closer and you can see where some cost-cutting has taken place. Below the SUV's cabin beltline is where the materials, which would have remained premium in the R1S, are less plush. But this is done tastefully, and, unlike in the Range Rover Velar, never makes you feel as if Rivian is punishing you for going down the price list. For example, the R1's wood surround on the dash has been swapped for something far less costly, but it doesn't feel cheap.

Headroom and legroom are exceptional, so no one in the rear seats will feel short-changed. Storage is good too, with not one but two glove compartments, and now space for big water bottles in the doors. The 40/20/40 split-folding second row lets you fold down the center section for skis, or you can drop that rear windscreen and have them dangle out the back.

Hello Halo

Considering Rivian has gotten flak for an almost complete absence of switchgear in the cabin, despite practically all other car makers reversing this ill-advised decision to remove buttons, those who know the interface from the R1S will be aware of how intuitive the brand's onscreen controls are. It's this usability that just about allows Rivian to get away with shunning CarPlay and Android Auto. Just about. Setting up driver profiles is a breeze with the onscreen tutorials, which are of a caliber Apple would be happy with. This said, there are still functions that most will want physical buttons for, such as the air-con.

But the one feature here I predict many competitors will try to copy is Rivian's excellent new haptic Halo wheels on the steering wheel. Created seemingly as an answer to those criticizing the car's lack of buttons, Halo places the most-used controls at your fingertips. These two notched wheels scroll up and down, or toggle left and right, to manage climate, music, drive modes, and more. The six-direction haptic wheels let you pull them sideways in either direction from behind or in front of the steering wheel; the resistance of the scroll also changes depending on what function you're trying to alter, yet it doesn't feel digital at all, but entirely analog.

Rivian has created an entirely new, naturally intuitive and tactile control system that breaks the mold of traditional steering controls. Many have tried to rework or reimagine steering wheel buttons, and many have failed. This Halo wheel system, however, is remarkable and instantly has you questioning why we haven't seen this solution before. What's more, because it's entirely digital, new controls can be mapped to the wheels. I'd like to see regenerative braking levels controlled by the Halo system, for example, and not via the screen.

On (and Off) the Road

The Performance model I drove is as rapid as the specs above suggest, but we have come to expect this from nearly all EVs, really. The throttle mapping is predictable, but the default regen braking is far too savage. Just as with acceleration, handling for electric vehicles these days is quickly becoming homogenous, with only occasional welcome surprises, like BMW's iX3, which managed to disguise its considerable heft in an almost magical manner.

The R2 can't quite conjure a similar disappearing act, sadly. Although feeling planted on the highway and fast country roads, there is no denying the physics of that battery pack, and you can feel the vehicle's weight in tighter corners. This isn't to say the R2 handles badly at all. It's a nice ride. But having now experienced what's possible in the BMW, manipulating suspension in real time so successfully, there's no getting away from the fact that this is now the yardstick all should be shooting for.

Take the R2 off-road, and just like with the R1, it's more than capable of getting you out of trouble. Rivian claims that 40 percent of its owners take their cars off-road, and that's a high proportion— much higher than you'd find with Range Rover, for example. Rivian's off-road architect sat with me as I took the EV up a craggy mountain pass to a lookout point with deep ruts and sizable rocks in our path. The R2 took the ascent and descent in its stride, though such a jaunt would only be advisable in the AWD version. The SUV, I'm assured, won't tip until it goes well past 35 degrees. The vast majority of people won't want to get anywhere near that figure.

Ready for Some Power, R2?

Rivian hasn't supplied official figures, but despite its less aerodynamic frame, the R2 supposedly has an energy consumption sitting between 3.7 and 3.9 miles per kWh, depending on the model. Real-world efficiency will vary with speed, temperature, and load and will likely depart greatly from these figures.

For example, my test-drive model, which has likely been gunned on the highway, had an efficiency of just 1.6 miles per kWh over a 19-hour, 360-mile drive period. But, considering a low average speed, it's fair to say the car had been put through its paces on multiple off-road scrambles, too.

As for charging, while the R2 features an acceptable 29-minute charge time from 10 to 80 percent, the now five-year-old Hyundai Ioniq 5 with its 800V infrastructure beats this by 10 whole minutes when using an ultrafast charger.

Another minus is that there's a reason this isn't a full review and instead a first drive: Rivian's much-talked-about new AI driving assistant isn't active yet. Apparently, it will roll out later this summer. On top of this, its Level 3 autonomous driving system—tech that Rivian boasts about and will not share with Volkswagen—is not yet available for testing, and the existing Universal Hands-Free L2+ autonomy merely sees Rivian keep pace with rivals rather than pull ahead.

All this means we'll have to revisit the R2 to see whether this Rivian for the masses really lives up to the hype. For now, the R2 succeeds in the neat trick of balancing ability, offering a plush experience despite the price, and good handling. If the next-gen tech does turn out to match the winning design and capability of this midsize SUV, the R2 may well be the much-needed revenue driver the company needs.