The Rivian R1T has been on the road for a few years now, with the first customer deliveries arriving in late 2021. Despite the model’s short time on the market, it has already made a huge impact on the plans of other automakers. Since Rivian announced the R1T would go into production, the Ford F-150 Lightning, Tesla Cybertruck and Chevy Silverado EV have all been announced and released.

Rivian’s next step for growth was the recently released R1S electric SUV. Both the R1S and R1T have been very well received, but they are expensive vehicles that will always have limited market penetration. If the automaker wanted to grow, it needed some more mainstream models. 

Rivian Needs Mainstream Models

The Rivian R1T starts at $69,900 for the standard range, dual-motor option. A similarly-equipped entry-level R1S starts at $74,900. In 2023, Rivian produced 57,000 vehicles and delivered over 50,000 units. In order to grow market share and become profitable, they need cheaper, higher volume models to compete with new competition entering the electric truck and SUV markets.

That’s why the formal announcement and preview event for the upcoming Rivian R2 and R3 made such a splash in March of this year. Rivian announced that the R2 would start at about $45,000, exactly the price target needed to compete with the more affordable offerings from Tesla, Chevy and Hyundai/Kia. 

We are about two years out from the R2’s projected launch in 2026, and Rivian has started sending out feeler surveys as seen on Rivian forum posts and the Rivian Automotive subreddit. These surveys are not an official announcement on pricing or features, but are intended to gauge just how much buyers are willing to pay, and what features they expect for the money.

Each person who takes the survey will see a different combination of features, ranges and pricing structures.

For instance, one survey taker may see a hypothetical trim featuring:

• Single RWD with 250 miles of range and a 0-60 time of 5.5 seconds

While another may see a variation such as: 

• Single RWD with 350 miles of range and a 0-60 time of 7.5 seconds.

While the feature set is different for each survey taker, both options above were listed with costs ranging from $57,000 to $61,000. 

This type of A-B testing is fairly common in the auto industry to see what features buyers truly value the most. In the above example, we would imagine that a trim with a 350-mile range will see a higher take rate than one with less range but faster acceleration.

Rivian is also testing for user preferences on charging port location and whether they have a different preference for at-home or public chargers. The survey provides options for front and rear vehicle locations on both the driver and passenger sides of the vehicle.

Here are some additional hypothetical trims that have been reported online:

Have you received the survey for the upcoming R2 yet? If so, did you see pricing options more similar to the originally announced $45,000 starting price? Let us know what options you received and what your preferences were in the comments below.