- Rivian began production of “manufacturing verification versions” of the R2 at its factory in Normal, Illinois, on Thursday.
- It is a big step towards large-scale production.
- Pricing for the R2 will start around $45,000, and Rivian reiterated its plans to start customer deliveries in the first half of this year.
the Rivian R2 It is one of the most anticipated electric cars of 2026 and a successful product for startups. It is now a crucial step towards production.
On Thursday, Rivian said it completed the first “manufacturing verification runs” for the R2 at its factory in Normal, Illinois. These pre-production vehicles are intended to test the plant’s equipment and manufacturing processes to ensure the company is ready for mass production with minimal setbacks.
Early releases will help Rivian improve the R2’s manufacturing processes.
Image by: Rivian
“A manufacturing verification build (MVB) is a phase in vehicle development where an automaker builds near-production vehicles using tools and processes intended for production to verify that the factory can reliably manufacture the vehicle at scale,” Courtney Richardson, a Rivian spokeswoman, said in an email. “Think of it as the moment when the question goes from ‘Can we build the car?’ to ‘Can we build it correctly, repeatedly, at scale?’”
The company also reiterated its plans to start delivering R2s to customers in the first half of 2026.
R2, The crossover starts at $45,000 and targets the Tesla Model Yis crucial to the young automaker, as its founder and CEO he said on the InsideEVs Plugged-In Podcast last summer. The R1S and R1T are some of the best electric cars you can buy today, but they cost $90,000 on average. Rivian is counting on R2 to build true economies of scale and chart a path to profitability.
The R2 of $45,000 is make or break for Rivian.
Image by: Rivian
It’s also one of the electric cars we’re most looking forward to at InsideEVs in 2026. More than 30 new electric vehicles are scheduled for launch next year, and if Rivian can pull it off What makes the R1 great In a smaller, cheaper package, it may have a Model Y moment on its hands.
But none of this can happen unless the California startup can reliably produce R2s at scale. Developing a completely new car is always a challenge, and that’s what EV upstarts generally face Hit obstacles of one kind or another– Whether that’s build quality on previous Teslas or software bugs in Lucid Gravity. This is where these validation designs come in.
Rivian has an attractive concept in the R2, one that experts believe could be a bright spot in an uncertain electric vehicle market. Now comes the hard part: implementation.
Contact the author: Tim.Levin@InsideEVs.com
