Rivian made a reputation for itself when it unveiled certainly one of the first electrical pickup vans, the R1T, in 2018. It adopted that up with an SUV constructed off the similar platform, the R1S, and has since constructed a passionate fan base round a model that celebrates journey and the outdoor.
Now it is getting ready for its subsequent chapter with the R2, a smaller spin on the R1S SUV, and the R3, a rally-inspired hatchback.
“A lot of people were surprised on R3” Rivian Chief Design Officer Jeff Hammoud advised CNBC. “It’s not something that I think a lot of people would have guessed that Rivian would have done … and that was the key thing we were trying to show, we’re not pigeonholed to one form factor.”
The new automobiles, which have been unveiled in March of final 12 months, are a part of Rivian’s technique to succeed in a broader marketplace for its electrical automobiles, which presently begin upwards of $70,000.
The R2, which the firm says will begin round $45,000, is anticipated to enter manufacturing by the finish of this 12 months at the firm’s Normal, Illinois, manufacturing facility.
“While R1 was designed through addition, we had to look at R2 through subtraction,” Hammoud stated. “What are the things we can remove or take away, but still keep the ethos of the product and the brand?”
The R2 and R3 are approaching the heels of a troublesome time for the automaker.
Weak demand, greater prices and the U.S. cancelling the EV credit score might spell bother for Rivian. But that hasn’t stopped the firm from breaking floor on a brand new $5 billion factory in Georgia, the place the subsequent technology automobiles might be constructed.
“We’re first launching R2 at our facility in Illinois, but this is really the site where we’ll scale global production. We’re building this into a 400,000 unit plant,” Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe advised CNBC’s Phil LeBeau at the plant’s development web site in September.
CNBC acquired uncommon entry inside Rivian’s design lab in Irvine, California, to see how the firm shapes its distinctive automobiles. We see how the EV maker approaches design for its adventure-driven EV lineup, which incorporates the backstory on the way it conceived its iconic headlights, a selection that provoked combined reactions when first unveiled.
“They were controversial,” remembers John Voelcker, contributing editor at Car and Driver. “It took a while for people to get over it. I think it was smart in that it’s harder to make your truck distinctive. So a front end that immediately is like no one else is probably a good thing.”
Watch the video to study Rivian’s strategy to design and its plans to increase its model of adventure-themed EVs.