Predictably, Rivian’s R2 is already racking up reservations. Rivian’s CEO RJ Scaringe took to X (Twitter) to announce that Rivian had more than 68,000 reservations for the R2. Considering that it’s $100 to reserve an R2, that’s a cool $6.8 million generated for the brand in less than 24 hours.
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The Rivian R2 is very important
The Rivian R2 may have been overshadowed by the R3 and R3X, but its $45,000 base price and smaller form factor still have proven to be important to EV buyers. It’s sized and priced to go directly against the Tesla Model Y.
Of course, this number is impressive, but it’s not entirely the whole story. If social media fervor is to be believed, then many buyers are holding out for the R3 or R3X. Those models don’t have a release date or an official reservation site. Some have openly stated that they’ve reserved an R2 with hopes that they’ll be able to convert the R2 reservation to an R3 when the time is right. The real amount of people interested in Rivian’s new models could be far higher.
Also, the reservation is a mere $100, a somewhat trivial amount of money for car buyers in search of a new EV. Other big EV projects like the Ford F-150 Lightning or Tesla Cybertruck had very impressive pre-order numbers, but when it came time to convert those orders to actual trucks on the road, quite a few potential buyers pulled their reservation money back and opted not to buy. Part of that was no doubt related to the ease of placing a reservation that doesn’t necessarily have to be followed through, but a lot of it had to do with failed promises of the brands that made the respective vehicles. The Cybertruck and F-150 Lightning both launched with prices that were higher than originally promised. Some feel the Cybertruck’s capability isn’t close to what Tesla promised when the truck was first shown in 2019.
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This is why it will be incredibly important for Rivian to stick to its promised $45,000 starting price. The high number of reservations, despite the far-off 2026 sale date, proves that buyers are desperate for reasonably priced EVs. Hopefully, Rivian can get the R2 and R3 on the road without a hitch, and convert its impressive reservation list into actual sales.
