Rivian has gotten production of the R1T, the R1S, and the Amazon electric van up and running. As per revised estimates, the automaker should be able to produce 25,000 vehicles this year down from a previously estimated 50000 cars. The estimate revision came because of the paralyzing chip shortage that is causing Rivian not to deliver as many cars as they would have if all things were equal.
Trademarked names for New Rivian models include the R2T, R2S, R2A, R2C, R2R, and R2X. No details about these vehicles have been confirmed but we do believe they may see production at Rivian’s new plant in Georgia.
Rivian was first to market with its all-electric pickup truck, the R1T. The crippling supply-chain issues have slowed the company’s ability to make these vehicles and get them out to patiently waiting customers.
Since Rivian is operating at half its production capacity, it is using the huge financial resources from institutional behemoths like the Ford Motor Company, Amazon, and others, and the leftover time on its hands to develop new platforms and new technologies, including an R2 platform that will serve as the foundation for future, more affordable vehicles.
Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe told Automotive News that just a small percentage of the over 170 hours available per week is actually used for production. In the interview at the factory last week R J said.
“There is 168 hours in a week, We’re using a very small fraction of those hours for production. So that’s by far our biggest focus as an organization is getting as many parts as we possibly can so we can be building more vehicles.”
At that speed of production and the amount of time lost due to the unavailability of parts, the situation seems to be one that calls for concern. Furthermore, given that the company plans to produce 10,000 all-electric vans for Amazon’s delivery fleet by the end of the year. In addition, there are 83,000 R1T and R1S reservations to deal with. Rivian recently modified its assembly line to allow for the production of 200 R1T trucks every week. Assuming a 52-week timeline, total units produced will be slightly over 10,000, far from the 15,000 predicted total R1 Vehicles.
Rivian has been using this off-time to develop the new R2 platform and other necessary technologies like new electric motors, which are being developed in-house, and a new unique 800-volt battery.
The new platform dubbed the “R2” is meant to be a universal platform targeted at smaller Rivian vehicles that will be more affordable than its current $67,500 flagship truck, the R1T.
Rivian has already trademarked some names we expect to see linked to future vehicles such as R2T, R2S, R2A, R2C, R2R, and the R2X.
As of now, there is no information about these vehicles, and Nothing has been confirmed.
What we think Rivian will be focusing on with this new platform is size and price. Although there are also signs that rivian may make a high-powered small vehicle. We will talk more about that later in the video
The R1T and the R1S are very much full-size vehicles. For reference, it’s bigger than the BMW X5, the Toyota Land Cruiser the Audi Q7, and that full-size Range Rover. You got the option for the third-row seating in the R1s and there is still enough storage for you to fit a lot in the car.
The fact that these vehicles are so big is a plus for some customers, especially in the US market. In other markets, however, people vier away from such huge-sized vehicles.
For some people, people this is just a little bit too big and it’s going to be potentially a little tricky if you wanted them as a city car.
Also, these cars are in the 80,000-dollar range and can go up to the $90,000 range if you want the large battery pack option which many people cannot afford.
To capture more of the market, Rivian has got to develop smaller and cheaper cars that are more accessible to people without deep pockets.
A few months ago, Rivian owners forum published some renders of what they imagined to be the R2x right after Rivia filed trademarks for the monikers. The “R2X” was trademarked in the “Land vehicles and parts” category with the United States patents and trademarks office.
People quickly connected the R2X moniker to Rivian’s previous mention of planning an electric rally vehicle after the R1T and R1S electric trucks.
Very strong speculation about the R2X model paints it to be like a crazy Land Rover Defender competitor. However, this may still be built on the R1 as a platform. Although it’s gonna be a little bit smaller than the R1S and it’s not gonna be available with third-row seating
As news of Rivian developing their own motors in-house is popping up on the interwebs, we can only hope that these motors will be ready in time to be used in these cars. The power speculation of the r1X may indicate that these motors just might be ready and are probably very powerful.
The motors may be made with carbon fiber sleeves which will allow these motors to produce a combined 1200 horsepower and 1200 pound-feet of torque. Anyway, we’re expecting this to be like the just the total range-topper and come in well above $100,000. When CEO RJ Scaringe was asked point-blank about the R1X he looked a little surprised and shot back with the quote-unquote did I tell you about that?
Building and manufacturing electric vehicles like this is no small task. Tesla with seemingly endless money and resources at its disposal has taken them almost 20 years to have a grand total of four models to choose from.
Though there are other cars on the horizon from Tesla like the cybertruck, the roadster, and the semi, it’s going to be a while before those cars will be available for purchase.
From what we have seen with the R1S and the R1t electric adventure vehicles from Rivian, RJ and his team look to be super ambitious and well capable of making these vehicles.
So, when might this be available?
Rivian is currently struggling with ramping up production on the R1S the R1T which they have a lot of orders for. Additionally, the automaker added a new trim for the R1 vehicles, the dual-motor 260 miles variant which is to begin deliveries in 2024.
Anyhow, we could see the R1X being revealed sometime in late 2023 with deliveries starting maybe in like early 2025.
As for the R2T, R2S, R2A, R2C, R2R, and R2X. Nothing has been confirmed but we do believe they may see production at Rivian’s new plant in Georgia.
