Rivian announces plans to launch five new models
Rivian will soon receive a $5 billion investment from the Volkswagen Group, and it already knows what it’s going to do with the money. The company announced plans to launch five new or updated electric models in the coming years, including three so-called mass-market cars.
The announcement was included in a slideshow that Rivian put together for investors. It lumps the brand’s models into four categories: Gen 1, Gen 2, MSP and Affordable Mass Market. We already know the Gen 1 cars: they’re the R1T, the R1S, and the electric panel van that Amazon has been using to deliver parcels for the past couple of years. Gen 2 refers to the recently-updated variants of the R1T and the R1S as well as a mysterious third model shown as a silhouette under a sheet. Is the sheet hiding a refreshed version of the delivery van? It’s certainly possible. We don’t think the silhouette corresponds to the body style because the exact same shape appears in another column.
MSP stands for “midsize platform,” which is the new architecture that will underpin the R2, the R3, and the R3X. These three EVs were introduced earlier in 2024, though they’re still a few years away from reaching production. The chart also suggests that Rivian will build a third model on the MSP architecture. Here again, we have no idea what we’re looking at. Maybe a small truck positioned below the R1T?
Finally, the third column shows three cloaked vehicles that will presumably slot at the bottom of the Rivian range. No details are available, and the term “affordable” is highly relative (especially when we’re talking about EVs), but keep in mind the upcoming R2 will start at roughly $45,000. That means the R3 will be cheaper than that, and the entry-level cars should cost even less.
We might need to wait a while to see them, however. R2 deliveries won’t start until the first half of 2026; the R3 will come after, though no timing has been announced. The entry-level cars will presumably be the last to hit the road. Expect more details about Rivian’s future range to emerge in the coming years.
