- The company could even make a pickup variant of the R2 sports utility vehicle along with a high-performance variant called the R2X, Reuters reports.
- It was CEO RJ Scaringe who hinted to the press that the assembly line in the soon-to-be-built Georgia plant can be used to assemble different versions of the R2.
- Moreover, Volkswagen’s investment portfolio in Rivian has grown by purchasing approximately $1 billion worth of stocks and boosting its ownership in the company to 15.9 percent.
The company managed to reach an important milestone in April. Customer vehicles of its compact R2 SUV became available at the manufacturing facility in Normal, Illinois, before starting deliveries, which will commence later this spring. While it is obvious that the priority at the moment lies with increasing the level of production and releasing first units of this model flawlessly, there are some considerations regarding future plans of the US-based firm, which are covered by Reuters reports.
The news about other R2 models emerged due to comments by the company’s CEO, RJ Scaringe, to whom the reporter referred in connection with the possibility of manufacturing R2 pickup trucks. “We have other versions of R2, but we haven’t revealed them yet. The production line in Georgia allows for various versions of R2,” explained Scaringe.
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The R2’s manufacture is initially taking place at the Illinois plant, but Rivian has also prepared a facility near Atlanta, Georgia, where the R2 will be manufactured in the coming years. Scaringe did not explicitly state that he would produce the pickup truck version, but an R2T could become one of the options that would go into manufacturing, especially since the Rivian R1 series comes with the options of an R1T truck and an R1S SUV. Manufacturing is not expected to commence until late 2028, so an R2T might not make its way to market before then.
“There certainly is room for an R2X,” added Scaringe. However, he did not confirm anything, emphasizing that “I want to be careful not to announce the program.” The R2X will most probably be a performance-oriented vehicle since Rivian has already announced its plans to unveil an R3X that will be a sporty version of the R3 SUV to launch before 2030.
As for the tri-motors, the R3X will probably come equipped with them, as well as the R2X in case it will be produced. Indeed, Rivian considered a possibility of creating a tri-motor version of the R2 when introducing it back in 2024, but later on, at the presentation of the finalized production version of the car in March 2026, Rivian decided against it.
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The information about the prospective lineup of cars based on the compact R2 platform comes shortly after yet another milestone moment for the company, with the filing of a recent SEC document revealing that Volkswagen is now the top investor in Rivian with a 15.9 percent share, according to Electrek. On April 30, Volkswagen acquired 62.9 million new shares priced at $15.90 each, pushing its holding above the 15.9 percent mark compared to Amazon’s 11.8 percent share in Rivian.
In addition to the $1 billion investment from Volkswagen, the deal also includes an investment agreement announced in November 2024 by Volkswagen and Rivian worth $5.8 billion. In the terms of the agreement, Volkswagen will provide an investment of $1 billion in intervals, provided that a joint venture between Volkswagen Group Technologies and Rivian achieves some predetermined targets. To date, Volkswagen has invested approximately $3.3 billion in Rivian to address its software difficulties.
