Rivian put out a feeler to test buyers' willingness to spend on a new R2

Rivian’s EVs are popular with buyers and offer plenty of useful features, but affordable they are not. That’s slated to change, at least slightly, with the new R2 platform, which will bring smaller, less expensive models to the automaker’s catalog, but it appears Rivian is eying pricier variants with extreme power. InsideEVs dug up Rivian Reddit users’ posts that detail a survey they received, asking whether they’d be willing to pay more for a high-performance R2 SUV.

Rivian asked owners about pricing, performance, and features they’d expect in a performance SUV. While the R2 is expected to start in the mid-$40,000 range, a hotter variant could command $70,000 or more. The automaker also probed potential buyers on options skewing toward the lower end of that price range, showing specs for a single-motor rear-drive model with a 0-60 time of around 7.5 seconds. The social media posts did not mention the R3, which was announced alongside the R2 earlier this year.

The R2 is still almost two years away, and Rivian has recently initiated layoffs as it chases profitability, so it’s anyone’s guess as to what happens between now and then. New R1 models, including the R1T pickup and R1S SUV, easily crest the $100,000 mark with options, and they’re only available with a $3,750 federal tax credit, putting them out of reach for a significant portion of potential buyers.

Rivian has been one of the more stable upstart EV makers, even with those bumps in the road. Fisker has been on the ropes for months, seeking investments from more established automakers and having its first model panned for poor tech implementation and quirky driving experiences. That said, it could receive a lifeline in the form of a potential buyer, but we’ve been down this road before, and it often takes a lot more than interest to attract a company willing to shell out millions for a struggling car company.