I’d be surprised if it did, but maybe their definition of “around” is different than mine. 😉This is now an electric truck/SUV thread.
Do you think the R2 will come out in 2026 for $45k?
If the last few years have taught us anything about electric vehicles, it's that they're easy to design but hard to manufacture at scale — and even harder to do so profitably.
Why it matters: Rivian revealed three additional new vehicles on Thursday, but like many other EV makers before it, the company is still burning cash at a breathtaking pace.
Reality check: The automaker — which currently sells the premium R1T pickup and R1S SUV — lost about $43,000 per vehicle in its most recent period, Reuters reported.
- The R2, a midsize SUV, would be the automaker's most affordable vehicle yet at around $45,000.
- The surprise unveiling of two additional and even more affordable models to come later — the R3 and R3X crossovers — was reminiscent of a Steve Jobs "one more thing" product introduction at Apple, Axios' Joann Muller reports.
Between the lines: Shortly after the glitzy event Thursday arranged to draw attention to its new, more affordable EVs, Rivian dropped an SEC filing saying that it was suspending plans for a $5 billion factory in Georgia.
- "We think there's a real risk that the R2 may never see the light of day," CFRA analyst Garrett Nelson wrote in a research note, adding that "we see [Rivian's] cash burn accelerating in the coming quarters."
"What we've always said is it's really important for us to make sure we have a strong balance sheet and to make sure that we're not in a position where we're putting the business at risk," Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe told Muller.
- The company said it will instead make the R2 initially more affordably at its current facility in Illinois.
The big picture: Rivian's growing pains are reflective of a broader problem for EV companies — that designing and engineering EVs is a lot easier than making them at a profit.
- "We're tracking towards and focused on both rapidly achieving a scale that ... we're accomplishing, but also doing it in a way that gets us to profitability as fast as possible."
- At this point, only Tesla can plausibly claim that it's figured out a formula for making EVs profitably — and only after a brutal stretch of red ink that nearly tanked the company.
- Others — including established automakers like GM and Ford and startup companies like Fisker and Lordstown — have not yet found a path into the black.