Dig into automotive history, and you’ll find barrels of blood, sweat, and tears shed before fledgling companies found success. Many never got off the ground, not only in the early 1900s, but recently, too, notably in the battery-electric vehicle space. Rivian is still running the marathon to survive, and there will be hurdles ahead.
But early signs suggest the new midsize R2 electric crossover, which reached its first customers on June 9, is a winner. Rivian’s overall production rates in the second quarter more than doubled from Q2 2025. The company’s overall financial outlook is improving, and there’s enough confidence to raise full-year guidance by 3,000 units – to a range of 65,000 to 70,000 vehicles delivered in 2026.
In short, things are looking good at Rivian. And they could get a whole lot better.
2027 Rivian R2Tom Murphy / Valnet / CarBuzz
CEO RJ Scaringe Is A Pillar Of Confidence Right Now
It’s not time yet for a victory lap, and there’s still lots of time for things to go wrong at Rivian. But when founder and CEO RJ Scaringe is willing to talk at length about the fun products in the pipeline, particularly the R3X hot hatch, it signals that the boss feels pretty good about how Rivian is doing. “The R3X is clearly like taking a more off-road rally perspective on performance,” Scaringe told UK auto enthusiast site Auto Express in an interview.
Keep in mind that the R3X isn’t slated for production until 2028, coming from the new plant in Stanton Springs, Georgia. In fact, that plant isn’t even built yet; it’s under construction with the help of a $4.5 billion loan from the US Department of Energy. Excavation for stamping presses is underway, the company tells CarBuzz today. The R3X, looking cool and rugged with a futuristic interior and three motors, is expected to launch at the Georgia plant ahead of the compact R3 from which this low-volume variant is derived.
Rivian Seeking Its Mainstream Groove
Whether the R3X will launch in Georgia before additional R2 production begins there is unclear, but the key takeaway is that the R2 and R3 are intended for mainstream audiences, priced well below the current $80,000 base for the R1T pickup and $84,000 for the R1S.
CarBuzz asked Scaringe earlier this year how low he hopes to push Rivian pricing in the future, and he declined to give a number. But the new well-equipped R2 Performance starts around $58,000, and the single-motor Standard R2 is expected to launch in summer 2027 from the Illinois plant, starting around $45,000. Rivian has said the goal is to start R3 pricing even lower, in 2028.
Taking A Page From AMG Playbook
Rivian R3 and R3X compact crossoversTom Murphy / CarBuzz / Valnet
But it’s the rally-inspired R3X that signals how important it is to Scaringe that Rivian expand its brand image beyond zero emissions to include off-road performance for enthusiasts. Trying to carry out that mission is the recently founded Rivian Adventure Department (RAD) to push the boundaries and introduce similar fun-to-drive variants, sort of like AMG is to Mercedes-Benz and the M division is to BMW.
“The best embodiment of RAD, or the best example of the types of products RAD will do, is R3X.”
–Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe
The CEO also told Auto Express that the R3X hot hatch was designed well before RAD even existed. “Had we figured out that we were going to create RAD before that, we would have just called that car the RAD R3X,” Scaringe said.
Rivian R3 and R3X compact crossoversTom Murphy / CarBuzz / Valnet
The future of the R3X – heck, Rivian’s entire future – rests on making money, and second-quarter financial results suggest the company is starting to turn the corner, after piling up net losses topping $25 billion over the past five years. Rivian posted an automotive gross loss of $36 million in the second quarter, but that loss was nearly 10 times higher ($335 million) in Q2 2025.
Over 12,500 Rivians Produced, 12,194 Delivered In Q2
The difference, according to CFO Claire McDonough, was ramped-up production and delivery volumes, increased revenue from automotive regulatory credits, and a refund for federal IEEPA tariffs. Automotive revenues of $1.1 billion were 23% higher than Q2 2025, and Rivian also exceeded its earlier expectations to deliver between 9,000 and 11,000 vehicles in Q2. Rivian produced 12,613 vehicles and delivered 12,194 in the quarter, up from building 5,979 and delivering 10,661 in Q2 2025.
Rivian R3 and R3X compact crossoversTom Murphy / CarBuzz / Valnet
Over that same one-year span, Rivian expanded its number of service centers from 81 to 104, its stores from 31 to 43, its number of Rivian Adventure Network chargers from 781 to 1,073, and its charging locations from 123 to 155. And since September 2021, Rivian has sold 187,759 vehicles, up from 142,254 as of Q2 2025. Despite the positive signs, Rivian still expects to close 2026 with an adjusted loss of about $1.9 billion, before interest and taxes. That’s certainly a big number, and it’s why Rivian is still running this marathon.
CarBuzz Insight – Why This Matters:
Rivian R3 and R3X compact crossoversTom Murphy / CarBuzz / Valnet
By the time Rivian’s Georgia plant opens, the R2 will have seen two years of production at the current plant in Normal, Illinois, which builds the R1T and R1S, as well as electric delivery vans for Amazon (40,000 delivered so far, with 60,000 more on the way).
The Normal plant has capacity to build 215,000 vehicles a year, and a second shift is expected to start in the coming weeks to ramp up R2 production. When Stanton Springs opens, that will add capacity for another 300,000 vehicles annually, starting with the R2 and R3. The bottom line is that Scaringe wouldn’t be talking about vehicles like the R3X arriving two years from now if he had any doubts about it ever seeing production.
Source: Auto Express, Rivian
