Rivian just surprise-declared an all-electric powered hatchback referred to as the R3 — providing the organization a huge Apple-esque “one more thing” announcement at the party that was ostensibly supposed to be all about its new R2 SUV.
The hatch has a good deal of structure similarities to the Honda e, a different electrical hatchback that captured the minds of a lot of potential EV prospective buyers a couple yrs in the past and is reminiscent of the boxier Volkswagen Golf. And it signifies an completely new sector of smaller sized EVs for Rivian to test and enjoy in — crucially, just one that Tesla now dominates. While we realized Rivian was operating on an “R3,” I’m not positive several individuals predicted it to appear very like this.
Regrettably, the firm did not promptly share any authentic aspects about when the R3 will be offered, or how a lot it will expense. It’s probably however years absent from manufacturing. CEO RJ Scaringe implied onstage at Thursday’s event that it will be created at the company’s new factory in Georgia, which is not nevertheless designed.
Picture Credits: Rivian
What we do know is the R3 will have a marginally shorter wheelbase in comparison to the R2 — 2800 mm compared to 2935 mm — and there will be a sporty, vibrant R3X variant. It will be crafted on the R2’s platform (which won’t be confusing in anyway) and will be “more affordable” than the $forty five,000 R2. A lot like the R2, the R3 will be obtainable in single-, double-, and tri-motor variants. In contrast to the R2, the corporation is not nonetheless having preorders.
“[R3] can take the packaging of R2, and the system, it shrinks it, it puts it into our take on what is a crossover, and . . . it’s practically tricky to determine what it is, but it so fantastically captures our model and captures what we depict as a corporation,” Scaringe mentioned in the course of the event
It is a little something of a shot in the arm for the business, although, which is slated to establish roughly as a lot of cars and trucks this year as it did in 2023 — news that Wall Avenue took inadequately. The R3 is a around-phrase resolve for that, apparently, as Rivian’s stock price tag soared just after the surprise expose.
Quite a few issues continue to be, especially on value and assortment, or regardless of whether what we saw Thursday is even a working prototype. But it is refreshing to see that a corporation that got its begin on tremendous, large pickup vans and SUVs is functioning on one thing significantly much more approachable and, potentially, even more affordable.
Impression Credits: TechCrunch
