The Electric Adventure SUV For the Masses! | 2027 Rivian R2 First Drive

[00:00:00]Rivian has spent the better part of the last decade showing us what it thinks a proper adventurous electric vehicle should look like. They called it the R1.

[00:00:10]And just 2 and 1/2 years ago, Rivian unveiled what would be the next step, the Rivian R2. And I think this might be the most important electric crossover since the Tesla Model Y. You see, the Tesla Model Y has taken the world by storm. Now up there with the bestselling cars on the planet. Tesla started with premium lower volume cars and finally brought more affordable ones to the masses. Now, there are a lot of people that don't want a Tesla for various reasons, and Rivian did come out at first with its premium R1 vehicles, and now this R2 fits a much more affordable and approachable price point. It starts under $50,000. It has up to 345 mi of range, and it features a roll down rear window just like the old school 4Runner.

[00:00:54]A lot more people care about this than you think. But is it a true rugged adventure or is it just a Tesla Model Y wearing hiking boots? A lot of people would be happy with just that. Either way, we're going to find out together.

[00:01:06]Let's jump into the Rivian R2.

[00:01:19]Let's start with some important numbers because people shopping for R2 have some important priorities. Range, price, and power seem to be at the top of that list, and those vary by trim level. I'm driving the top-of-the-line Performance Launch Edition today. It has up to 330 mi of range, and it has a blistering 656 horsepower and a price tag of just shy of $60,000. It's the only option available right now. So, early reservation holders, existing Rivian customers, anyone lucky enough to get an early one gets this fully loaded option.

[00:01:51]Drop down to the premium, which is also all-wheel drive, and you'll be at 330 mi of range, but only 450 horsepower, which is still a lot of power, mind you.

[00:02:00]Priced at just over $55,000, I have a feeling this will be the biggest seller.

[00:02:05]Still packed with premium things, just a bit less money. This comes out later in the year. drops further to the standard rear wheel drive and you'll step up to 345 miles of range and down to 350 horsepower, which is still more than basically all the gas powered SUVs in this segment. That starts just under $50,000, getting you the most range for the lowest price. You'll have to be patient, though, because that's quoted to arrive in 2027. Even more patience will bring you to a smaller battery variant in mid 2027, which they promised would include a $45,000 price tag, plus that pesky destination fee. We'll have to see. That's a ways away. But all these variants provide usable range, power, and aggressive pricing given the current market conditions.

[00:02:49]We'll get back to driving in a bit, but the first thing I want to point out is the looks. In fact, you probably can't even tell if I'm standing next to the Rivian R2 or their existing three row SUV, the Rivian R1S. That's because they look very, very similar. Only when they're side by side is when you can really tell how much smaller the R2 actually is. I might even say that's a good thing because many people want big cars, but not too big. It's about 15 in shorter than the R1S, about 10 in less high. It's a little smaller than a Toyota 4Runner, but a little bigger than a Toyota RAV 4 or a Honda CRV, if that helps you at all with figuring where this fits in the mix. Rivian has somewhat made a name for itself with its design, which is somewhat polarizing.

[00:03:30]Though many people love its retro future vibe with a utilitarian, boxy approach.

[00:03:36]Some folks are very disillusioned by the running lights. They call these running lights stadiums, like a football stadium or something. They're a really cool, unique representation of what Rivian looks like as a brand once going down the road. Looks unlike anything else, that's for sure. And I love them. Uh, your appreciation may vary. Looks are subjective. They are connected all the way across with a light bar. Other standout details are the gorgeous wheels, either 20-in or 21in at launch.

[00:04:03]There's a future 19-in wheel planned for the standard model coming in mid 2027.

[00:04:08]The R2 can be had with allseason or in this case allterrain tires on some fantastic looking wheels. And if you see yellow brake calipers, that means you have the performance model. This is actually close to the compass yellow color that Rivian used to have on their cars. And I love and miss that color dearly. In fact, I wore my yellow shoes out of solidarity in hopes that they would someday bring it back. But this comes in other great colors, too.

[00:04:32]Rivian's color palette is just nice. But if you like Forest Green or Borealis Purple, you'll have to wait until later this year or even next year. And like I said, it's boxy, which I personally love. Boxes are functional. There's a reason you use them to carry stuff, which this is no exception. Under the hood, you'll find the frunk or front trunk. And that basically power opens, which is nice. It is smaller than the Rivian R1. That was like 11 cubic feet.

[00:04:59]This is only only 5 cubic feet. It's still very usable, very functional, bigger than the trunk of my entire car back home. I drive a Miata, so what's that saying? Um, but this is a little bit bigger than the frunk of a Model Y as well. For reference, there's even a little Easter egg under here that shows a frog and a skunk, which yes, that does combine to be frunk. Clever. So clever.

[00:05:23]Uh, when you're done, you do have to manually shut it, but it does kind of soft close itself. It's a nice touch. On the other end of the car, the trunk is also impressive. 28.7 cubic feet, a hair less than the Model Y, but with the second row folded, it blows it out of the water with nearly 80 cubic feet. If you include the frunk and cubbies, the total storage space comes out to about 90 cubic feet, the exact same as a Toyota 4Runner, which again, that's a bigger vehicle in almost every dimension. Something else very fun is the rear drop glass. You just touch your finger right there and this window drops, which is something the Rivian R1 doesn't do. It allows access to stuff in the trunk or maybe a dog with its head out of the trunk. This unique implementation of rear glass also needs a unique implementation of a rear wiper which is hidden down here. I think it's a really cool function. It's hidden away from view and they couldn't put it up here because they actually need the airflow to cut down through the boxy shape of the R2 just a little bit. Any bit of efficiency gains are great. So, although the R2 is smaller than the R1S, the interior space is what gets interesting. But before we get there, this is also interesting. A flashlight in the door,000 lumens gets very bright.

[00:06:36]That's super bright. Let's jump inside.

[00:06:39]If you love Divians of the past, you will love this interior as well. Nice premium feeling materials, almost Scandinavian design language. Let's just say if Rivian offered to design my living room, I would say yes. At first, you can only get this black interior with the R2, and it does feel nice. It feels premium, but I personally prefer the upcoming lighter colored interior that looks especially nice in my opinion. But if you like a black interior, this is sleek. It's still modern. It has nice wood accents, cloth, and stitching elements. The screens beautifully baked into the interior, not feeling like an afterthought. Doesn't feel like an iPad is just slapped up there. I really like sitting in and looking at the interior. And below the nice instrument panel is the not one but two glove boxes, one for each glove.

[00:07:25]Rivian's original vehicles, the R1, did not have glove boxes at all. And I think people complained and Rivian listened.

[00:07:32]Awesome.

[00:07:34]Rivian also listened to people who complained about wireless phone charging. The phone would slide about when you're taking corners or even just slowing down. Now, Riven is the second car company to offer CH2 wireless charging, holding your phone in place with magnets. Brilliant. The screen in the middle is technically smaller than the R1, but actually has a bit more pixel density, so it can fit more on the screen. The software is super nice, super responsive. There is no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, which might be a disappointment for some people, but if everything's built in, such as Apple Music, Spotify, Bluetooth, a really fantastic navigation system with EV route planning. With all those things in there, I don't think there's much to miss by not having phone projection.

[00:08:18]It's very easy to adjust any and all vehicle settings. And bonus, the animations are gorgeous. Actually done with Unreal Engine, the same graphics engine responsible for Fortnite. Any Fortnite fans out there? Or is it just just me? Okay, just me. Beyond these cool animations, you'll also find features like camp mode and dog mode or pet mode. Lucid, Tesla, Rivian, all of them have camp and climate modes that keep the climate on and keep your pet safe and keep you comfortable when you're camping. Hopefully, all those features come to an update very soon.

[00:08:49]Rivian has been really good in the past about bringing constant updates to improve the software and everything else. So, I have high hopes for the R2 as well. The vents are controlled by the screen, too, which is less convenient than just grabbing a knob, but also lets you save vent settings for each driver, which is more convenient than I expected. There's more water bottle space in the door, done by moving the speakers elsewhere, and a glasses holder in the door as well. Both requests by Rivian customers. Rivian listened. The steering wheel controls are also a very interesting, unique implementation.

[00:09:21]They're these big haptic wheels or haptic halos as Rivine calls them. What they are is like a metal scroll wheel on a motor that you interact with and they'll do kind of different things dynamically such as controlling your music or changing what you see on the driver display in front of you. Yes, this has a great driver display by the way. You can brag about that to your Model Y friends. And you can adjust the fan and then tap over and adjust the temperature and then tap over and adjust your autonomy. I do think it's one of those things where you'll have to sit and spend a couple minutes to really learn it, but once you do, it becomes second nature. Not unlike a digital crown on an Apple Watch, for example. It becomes pretty simple and intuitive. The front seats themselves as they are very comfortable. They're heated and ventilated. If you get the premium tiers that we have here, the headrest could be softer, but they're fine. This is still a premium place to be. And the back seat, monstrous, relatively speaking.

[00:10:15]There's 40.4 4 in of legroom, which not everyone knows what that means, but basically I'm 6 feet or roughly 1.83 m and I can sit behind myself with a lot of room to spare. I can stretch out. My feet can even fit under the seat in front of me. But this is what I meant earlier when I said the cabin space is interesting because this is a lot more space in the second row than you'd find in the bigger R1S. And that's largely because they're not trying to cram a third row behind you. You can give all the space you want to the passengers.

[00:10:45]Heated rear seats in the back. No ventilated seats. That would be a really cool bonus. But um USB ports, everything you could possibly want. Feels comfortable, feels premium. But okay, enough sitting still in this thing. Even though it is a nice place to hang out, I would again camp in here. Let's go put that 656 horsepower to the test.

[00:11:16]Okay, 3, two, 1.

[00:11:20]Really throws you back in your seat. And there we go. 0 to 60 launch uphill, by the way. So, yes, that's the caveat I should mention. I'm driving the performance model today. The performance launch edition, which is 656 horsepower, 609 pound- feet of torque. Those are big numbers. And this is not that big of a car, which makes it really more than enough. I think most people would be absolutely fine with the normal premium all-wheel drive. And even the rear wheel drive when that comes out, 350 horsepower is no slouch. It's still more than a lot of cars in this class. And all that power comes from an 87.9 kWh battery. And that's regardless of performance or all-wheel drive or even rear wheel drive. A smaller battery is coming in mid 2027. We just don't know the size yet, but we know the range should still be a very usable 275ish miles. But the R2 is not just a scaled down R1. It really does feel like a more cohesive package when you're driving a sporty road, but even just around town, it was actually more noticeable than I expected. It's a true unibody design.

[00:12:26]The battery pack is structural, and the battery obviously lowers your center of gravity, so you feel a bit more planted around the corners. Now, these are no street sport tires. These are still all seasons. I am losing a little bit of grip if I'm hitting a corner too hard, but I think the way most people would drive this, more than enough power, more than enough capability, and more than enough smiles. I'd say smiles per gallon, but A, that's cheesy, and B, this doesn't take gallons of anything.

[00:12:52]And one other thing the performance package adds to the R2 is the adaptive suspension. So, it has three different ride settings back in allpurpose mode.

[00:13:01]Uh, you can go moderate, soft, or firm.

[00:13:04]They don't make a dramatic difference, but they do help dial it in to exactly how you want it to feel. And those who are coming from perhaps a bit more of a luxury brand like a BMW, uh, might appreciate the fact that the rear motor does have a bit more of the power bias compared to the front. So, it is ever so slightly rear wheel drive biased. And when you're in conserve mode, which makes it as efficient as possible, it will actually disconnect the front motor, making this rear wheel drive, which is the opposite of how the R1 did it. Regenerative braking is really strong. off throttle. It'll bring you to a complete stop with true one pedal driving. You can dial it back to standard or low, but as far as I know, there's not a way to turn it fully off.

[00:13:41]The R2 also has sway bars, anti-roll bars, which the R1 didn't really have with it suspension system. It kind of had a almost like a fake but very effective version of that. This does have real fairly bulky sway bars that will keep you relatively planted in the corners, but it still does have some body roll. And now that Rivian has rolled out its universal hands-free platform, if you have the autonomy plus package, you can throw that on anytime you have a marked lane, which I think in the US means 3.5 million miles of roads.

[00:14:11]And that lets you sit here hands-free and enjoy the drive. It even lets you peak glances at the scenery. But I would still pay attention to the road. If the road is too sharp ahead, the car will tell you, "Sharp curve ahead. Take control of the vehicle." That way you don't have to worry about it sending you off a cliff.

[00:14:28]>> There we go. I'm back in charge. This does feel just so much more dynamic than I honestly expected. And maybe that's because I came from driving an R1S before and I perhaps mentally just thought this would be a smaller version of that. It's not the most responsive steering. I'm not feeling every single piece of the road. I think it's a little bit more geared towards luxury feeling, not sporty performance. But that being said, I think most people will enjoy taking this on your average B-roll, and it's going to make for a really great highway commuter as well.

[00:15:09]So, the R2 has plenty of on-road prowess, but not at the expense of some off-road chops. Rivian, of course, is built on their adventure branding, and this car wants to continue that legacy.

[00:15:21]So, as you can expect, you can easily take it into the woods on some aspen leaf beeping adventures. Uh, maybe not rock crawling in Moab, per se, but it still has plenty of capability. I'd say punching at or above its class in many ways. Ground clearance for one. 9.6 in is already on the podium as far as all of its competitors in the space. I mean, the only things touching close to that are TRD Pro from Toyota or some of the Subaru Wilderness models that try to get there and they barely match it. And of course, being all-wheel drive, at least at launch, the R2 has all that all-wheel drive capability you really need for most roads. you'll probably benefit from throwing it into some of the off-road modes such as all-terrain, soft sand, or rally. And those will disable the proximity sensors, which at the moment would be yelling at me if I was on the on-road modes. And they dial in some of the tuning, uh, especially with the throttle control, regen, suspension. All of those are nice and malleable for whatever situation you find yourself in.

[00:16:23]As we approach a stream, it's worth noting water foring is limited to about half a meter, which is a little under 20 in. So, maybe don't go swimming.

[00:16:35]And those wanting to off-road, perhaps more than average, uh, will probably benefit from having these 20-in wheels with the all-terrain tires. Honestly, the 19-in ones coming later on the standard models might be even better, but you can always buy those later if you want. And Rivian has their fantastic cameras which not only help with the driver assistance but also help you as sort of trail assistance. You can see where you're going. You can see what's around you. You can even tap the screen to look closer at the wheels just to really properly place yourself and find your line through your trail excursions.

[00:17:10]And while there are no locking differentials, there's still a lot you can do with the brake based vectoring and uh just electric motors in general.

[00:17:17]They're so responsive and so fast to react to the situation that I think it's going to take a lot to get this thing truly properly stuck. And all of the gauges are another really fun little piece of Rivian's greatl looking software. I can see my compass heading, my elevation, I can see the pitch and roll factors, um my tire PSI, motor temperatures front and rear. You can even see the power split between the front and rear motors. Also, my perspective from the passenger seat highlights how the suspension dampening is really properly done. It's surprisingly comfortable, honestly, regardless of firm or soft. Uh, it's pretty compliant. I'm not really pogoing like crazy after every bump. And for those worried, if you do actually use the entire 9.6 in of ground clearance, the battery pack is protected from the bottom, uh, can actually take the weight of the Rivian from like ride height. So, if you do land yourself on a rock, don't worry. It's all going to be okay. So, this may not be able to do every single trail in Moab, but it could still do a lot in Moab. And I might even say fit right at home.

[00:18:22]So, in a world of what feels like hundreds of crossovers to choose from, should you choose this or should you pick one of the safe alternatives? My initial impressions, I think this might be worth it. It feels premium, it drives premium, and it looks premium. Although, yes, I know looks are subjective, but this doesn't feel like a Model Y in an Otterbox case, it truly feels like its own thing, and it truly feels like Rivian. You can, of course, check out KBB for a fair purchase price for this or its host of competitors. Let me know what you guys think of this versus a 4Runner or the Tesla Model Y. There are a lot of things to choose from. Like I said, hundreds. Early adopters, of course, get the cool factor, being one of the first ones to get a car that the world's been looking forward to for over 2 years. But there are some reasons to wait too potentially depending on what you value such as a light color interior or the more advanced autonomy options like lidar and the more powerful computer that will allow you to have in theory hands off eyes off driving. And they may even bring out more colors.

[00:19:23]They might even bring compass yellow back. We'll see. I'm crossing my fingers and my toes. I I would love that color.

[00:19:29]Until then, thanks for watching. We may never get Compass Yellow, but at least we have the R2 finally. and I'm really really stoked about it if you couldn't tell.

[00:19:40]Bonus tip on the sound system. It's not amazing out of the box, but if you turn off immersive audio and add a bit of an EQ that looks like this, it will sound quite good. Hopefully, Riven improves the out- of-box experience with an update. Oh, and the USBC port charging speed is a little slow. Man, there's so much info to cram in such a little time.

[00:19:57]Comment compass yellow if you made it this