According to an official statement issued in the business shareholder letter earlier this week, Rivian will postpone the debut of its next-generation R2 platform until 2026.
Originally scheduled to debut in 2025, the smaller platform will serve as the foundation for Rivian’s more inexpensive R2 family of cars. It is also expected to be one of the first platforms outside of the R1 family to be produced at the company’s planned $5 billion facility in Georgia, which is slated to open in 2024. However, it seems that the factory will be devoted to Rivian’s other goods for at least the next two years when it is operational.
The R2 is still in the early stages of development, but Rivian says it is confident in the company’s capacity to support the project until 2025. It’s unclear if there will be financing concerns in the year between when it was originally scheduled to begin and 2026, however, Rivian looks to be in a rather strong financial position considering its balance sheet. Regardless, the delay implies that the prospect of purchasing a low-cost Rivian car will be greatly delayed.
Having said that, Rivian is selling every car it can produce. Rivian delivered 7,373 automobiles in the third quarter, a huge increase over the 4,467 vehicles delivered in the second quarter. Rivian claims it is adding a second shift to its plant to meet the demand for its 114,000 R1 preorders.
The firm is experiencing some growing pains as it ramps up the manufacturing of its R1 line of automobiles. Rivian has apparently been concentrating on achieving its promise to Amazon for commercial EDV deliveries. Since one of its major investors, Amazon has commissioned Rivian to create 10,000 cars by the end of 2022, albeit that figure seems to be a long way off, as Amazon stated on Monday that it has finally increased its fleet to 1,000 units as of this week. According to Amazon, it aims to have 100,000 Rivian-branded trucks in its fleet by 2030, leaving little opportunity for Rivian to concentrate on scaling up manufacturing of its current passenger car fleet and new goods.
Rivian says that the eventual introduction of the R2 platform would provide the firm with a “global market opportunity” that it can exploit to further reinforce its position in the electric vehicle area, as it recently did in the commercial arena by establishing a relationship with Mercedes-Benz.
