Curious to hear the latest on Rivian’s R2?
Rivian announced its new R2 midsize SUV in March 2024, and now, the electric automaker has updated an eager public on the model’s progress leading up to its planned launch during the first half of 2026. The car manufacturer’s newest information on the R2 includes insider looks at the SUV’s design studio, powertrain test lab, and electrical lab.
Inside Rivian’s design studio
According to Rivian, its in-house design studio spent hundreds of hours creating sketches to form the R2. Rivian described the design studio as a space where creativity meets feasibility, and one of its primary challenges with the R2 was acknowledging and working with its cost constraints without compromising appeal. The automaker’s design studio works on and approves solitary segments ahead of time so that there are “no surprises at the end,” with smaller elements like a glovebox receiving high amounts of individual attention.
All about the R2’s drive unit, Maximus
The powertrain test lab’s highlights featured a closer look at Maximus, Rivian’s in-house next-generation drive unit primarily serving in its upcoming R2 and R3. Improvements from the last drive unit, Enduro, include Maximus’ smaller size, lighter weight, lower cost, and simpler manufacturing from reducing its fasteners by 30%. Maximus’ inverter converting direct current (DC) energy to alternating current (AC) energy is now side-mounted, providing additional clearance for the lower R2. Rivian noted that the R2’s drive unit uses a continuous winding e-machine, generating higher performance and further simplifying manufacturing by reducing the number of welds.
According to its manufacturer, Enduro is 40% more power-dense than its predecessor, much cheaper, and easier to build—all of which facilitate scaling, something Rivian struggled with while producing its R1T and R1S models. Rivian said Enduro was its first drive unit to go immediately to hard tooling, meaning it went straight from digital designs and engineering to building production-ready manufacturing tools used for high-volume creation. Maximus is undergoing month-long testing in extreme high and low temperatures along with simulated rainfall conditions.
How Rivian’s electrical lab helps form an R2
Rivian’s electrical lab works on the R2’s stack, or integrated hardware and software acting as the vehicle’s brain. The automaker has spent the last few years vertically integrating its tech, and zonal architecture organizing electronics by location helps it design a stack entirely in-house.
Rivian uses a midsize platform lab car for active R2 development and testing, where it can evaluate harnessing, endpoint devices, and everything on the low-voltage side that code from the SUV’s brain touches. A Rivian mule bridges the midsize platform lab car stage and design validation builds just before mass production. One of Rivian’s mules, 3.2, shows seats, screens, motors, and more that will be represented on the design validation build while still allowing design accessibility.
Rivian
Final thoughts
Last month, reports emerged that Rivian remains on track to sell the R2 for $45,000. A newly completed extension will house R2 production at the automaker’s Normal, Illinois plant. LG Energy Solution’s batteries for the R2 will initially come from South Korea before being sourced from LG Energy Solution’s new Arizona factory.
