Rivian unveiled the R2 – and the shock R3 – yesterday, and after getting again and having a while to digest the occasion, I’m right here to speak about quite a lot of smaller particulars that I discovered which didn’t get talked about on the livestream.
The remainder of the Electrek crew caught the livestream and saved you updated in our reside watch get together and articles you will discover on our R2 launch information hub.
However I headed down the coast to the venue itself, in lovely Laguna Seashore, California, to be available for the reveal.
The occasion was held on the Rivian South Coast Theater, a historic theater that had fallen into disrepair, which Rivian renovated and changed into a retail and occasion house.
After which… Rivian modified it up once more to show it into an area for the automobile unveiling, which had an entire new stage and display screen arrange, bleachers for media to face/sit in, turntable for the automobiles, and so forth.
And simply from the very starting of the occasion, Rivian began getting the small print proper. The stage appeared nice, good lighting, and the presentation really began on time (that’s not one thing we’re used to within the EV world…).
However what actually issues listed below are the automobiles, and Rivian didn’t miss the small print there both.
One factor I used to be nervous about with the shift from R1 to R2 is that the need of getting prices down would imply quite a lot of the “neat little issues” concerning the automobile would get minimize. The R1T has quite a lot of cool options just like the bluetooth speaker, flashlight, gear tunnel, and so forth. I believed perhaps we’d get one or two “headline neat options,” and the remaining would give option to being only a regular well-made SUV.
So think about my progressively rising shock ranges when, after the primary presentation, they continued to disclose increasingly more neat issues that I wasn’t anticipating, and that weren’t talked about throughout the livestream.
For instance, all of us noticed the slide-down rear glass, which is cool sufficient by itself – it’ll scale back buffeting when the home windows are down, and permits for loading very lengthy objects into the automobile, particularly when mixed with the fold-down rear and entrance seats (chief designer Jeff Hammoud talked about hauling 16-foot-long baseboards).
However past the rear glass, there’s a small “flip-up desk” which you’ll be able to attain into the window and pull up, supplying you with a small inside shelf to place issues on – sort of like a miniature tailgate or the sting of a truck mattress. Right here’s a photograph of what it seems to be like deployed – although the tailgate was up, so that you’ll have to show your head sideways to get a way of what it’ll appear to be when its down.
Okay, so we will have a tiny tailgate get together. That’s kinda cool, and certainly individuals will discover some type of fascinating use circumstances for that.
However a a lot cooler characteristic, with to me way more instantly obvious makes use of, is the slide-out cargo ground.
Like many EVs, there’s a big effectively beneath the rear cargo ground for extra storage. Most EVs have a detachable cowl that features as a flat cargo ground, however the R2 takes that to a different degree. The cargo ground slides a few foot out of the car, and looks like it could possibly maintain an inexpensive quantity of weight:
This looks like an excellent helpful characteristic to me. If the shelf is sort of a mini-tailgate, that is nearer to a full-fledged tailgate. You possibly can sit on it (although I’d watch out to not sit on the very edge…), pull out some tenting chairs and use it as a desk, or, as Rivian advised, it could be helpful for altering a child’s diapers.
Higher but, it fixes one of many few issues I’ve with the Rivian, which is that the frunk, whereas deep and enormous, is ready reasonably far again within the car’s already-tall front-end, creating a giant lift-over space which makes it exhausting to lug cumbersome or heavy gadgets into it. That’s nonetheless the case within the R2, however the slide-out shelf within the rear makes it a little bit of a moot level, as a result of it looks like it could be very easy to load heavy issues into.
For an instance, I’ve not too long ago needed to transfer an industrial dolly and a transportable noticed desk into the again of a Mannequin Y, and in each conditions, there’s at all times the concern of hitting the again of the automobile within the course of. Having a slide-out tray would considerably scale back this fear, and it could be loads simpler to put the merchandise down after which slide the entire tray into the car.
Going again to these fold-down seats (which have a neat detachable headrest, which releases with the press of a button, essential to make sufficient room to fold them down), this offers a ton of room for automobile tenting. And the cool factor about tenting in an electrical automobile is that you just’ve bought quite a lot of vitality onboard to energy automobile methods in a single day, like HVAC for instance. Because of this, we’ve seen numerous electrical automobiles acquire a “camp mode” which retains sure methods on in a single day.
Rivian has its personal camp mode, with some intelligent Rivian-only enhancements (like auto-leveling with air suspension – which the R2 gained’t have). However the R2 camp mode has a neat characteristic which modifications every little thing concerning the UI, displaying fundamental information and turning the entire display screen crimson.
This issues as a result of crimson mild has much less of an impact in your night time imaginative and prescient than different wavelengths of sunshine does. For this reason crimson lights are utilized in ships at night time, or if you happen to ever go stargazing with critical astronomy-types, they’ll solely allow you to use flashlights with crimson filters on them.
We will think about this characteristic may make it to different Rivians as effectively through software program updates, however that is the primary we’ve seen of it – on any automobile, which actually exhibits that Rivian isn’t simply occupied with neat options that work for EVs, however how they match into the particular “journey” ethos the corporate is constructing.
That is additionally obvious in Rivian’s detachable flashlight, a well-liked characteristic within the R1 which returns within the R2. It’s at all times good to have a flashlight useful whereas adventuring.
However the brand new element right here is that there’s not only a flashlight, however on the opposite aspect in the identical spot, there’s one other gadget of comparable dimension which has a USB-C port and can be utilized as a transportable backup battery for units (as if you happen to’ll ever run out of juice, provided that the automobile has 8 USB-C ports – 2 entrance, 4 rear, 2 trunk, with a 120V outlet within the trunk besides). This additionally stays charged whereas it’s slotted within the door, similar to the flashlight does, and the models are interchangeable from one aspect of the automobile to the opposite.
However additionally the cellphone charger has a button on it which permits it for use as a hand hotter (which, as a local Southern Californian, is one thing I hear individuals want once they reside in locations that get “chilly,” no matter that’s). So not solely did Rivian shock us with one other cool gadget, however they shocked us with one other cool gadget with a further use on prime of the preliminary use which already impressed us.
(Be aware additionally: the door pockets have been redesigned, with door audio system moved inboard on the automobile, in order that the pockets at the moment are taller and might suit your tall stainless water bottle – and so they’re nonetheless expandable if it is advisable to match one thing a tad too thick in them)
After which there are all of the options you heard about within the livestream, and in earlier articles we wrote concerning the occasion, like the various deliberate equipment Rivian is engaged on (and which they promise gained’t prove just like the Camp Kitchen and Tunnel Shuttle did final time).
The one controversial miss (relying on the way you have a look at it) is cost port placement for the NACS cost port – it’s on the rear passenger aspect, reasonably than rear driver aspect like on Teslas. Which means, when charging at V3 Superchargers, Rivians could find yourself inflicting conflicts (which is why we actually want the brand new V4 superchargers with longer cables).
Rivian had good causes for this – compatibility with its Rivian Journey Community (R1s park nose-in, R2s would again in) and with present homeowners’ dwelling charger installations, simpler charging for individuals who park and cost on the road, which is frequent in Europe the place the R2 will likely be launching, and maybe most significantly cheaper wire harnesses within the car on account of placement of parts. However we nonetheless marvel if it could have been extra worthwhile to undergo the troubles to put new NACS-only cost port on the entrance passenger aspect for higher compatibility with the a lot bigger Supercharger community.
Regardless, the online impact of all of those options, along with those talked about within the livestream, is a automobile that simply appears eminently usable. Simply as I felt on the first Rivian R1 reveal occasion, it feels just like the engineers and designers on the firm actually get it – they get the advantages that electrical powertrains can convey, they get how individuals use their automobiles, they get the best way to make options that don’t simply “shock and delight” however even have sensible purposes.
Most automobiles solely have one or two of those neato options, the sort that you just present your mates whereas saying “hey, look what this automobile can do!” This automobile, nonetheless, has sufficient of them to justify an 1,800-word article (sorry).
And all of that isn’t even concerning the automobile I appreciated most from the displaying. I’m a small-car man (and try to be too), so the shock small-SUV-crossover-rally-car-hatchback-or-whatever-you-wanna-call-it R3 was extraordinarily thrilling to me. I like the shape issue, I like that they bought their inspiration from ’80s Group B rally automobiles (full with funky inside), and I can’t wait to see extra particulars on this car.
There have been hints of some neat hidden concepts on the R3, like a (detachable?) storage compartment on the again of the motive force’s seat on the R3X and a few sort of cool strap-down blanket thingy on the passenger’s seat, however because the doorways weren’t open and that automobile is kind of removed from manufacturing, these should wait for an additional day.
Which brings up an necessary level – by the point manufacturing comes round, there’s at all times an opportunity that a few of these options will go by the wayside. I already heard hypothesis that the fold-out rear quarter home windows won’t make it to manufacturing (CEO RJ Scaringe actually likes them, however they’re slightly redundant with the slide-down rear window), or that they may need to cut back plans for the haptic contact steering wheel knobs (this appears too essential to the management of the car to me – I guess it stays in, and ultimately will get into the R1 too).
However the mixed impact of those options is sufficient to present that Rivian actually is on the vanguard of placing new concepts into design on their autos, and like different EV startups earlier than them, they appear to be shifting at a tempo that conventional automakers are going to have a tough time catching up with.
FTC: We use earnings incomes auto affiliate hyperlinks. Extra.