Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe Interview: Hidden R1 bidirectional charging, R2 NACS, ‘mind-bending’ R3 build timeline, more
Rivian gave us a quick 15 minutes with CEO RJ Scaringe to talk about the R2 and R3. Believe me, we took full advantage of that time to ask the pressing questions you told us you had in our watch party and many others. Some of his answers are the first we’ve heard on the matter.
Rivian R3/X !!!
It is hard to believe that this secret was kept so well. It is the sign of a company that has its act together and loyal employees.
On Rivian R3 vs. R2, there is a contingent within the company that wants to bring out the R3 first. At this moment, the R2 is slated to come out first. At this moment, there is a “stagger” between R2 which will be launched out of Normal in 2026 H1. It sounds like it is uncertain if the R3/X will be launched out of Normal or Georgia. Also it is uncertain what this stagger will be but a year would put R3/X at H1 2027, which is a long way off.
On the R3, RJ called out its “incredible, mind-bending” capability and speed. Put in context, the tri-motor R2 will do 0-60 in ‘well under’ 3 seconds and with the same drivetrain, the smaller, lighter R3X should be significantly faster than that. All of that will still include the ability to go off road. In a hatchback (!!) form factor.
Rivian R2 Pack size
RJ didn’t go into specifics on the kWh capacity of the packs but there will be at least 2 pack sizes. The $45K version with RWD will go under 300 miles or about 270 miles. It is uncertain what the actual EPA will be. The larger pack will be over 300 miles even with the Trimotor under 3 seconds 0-60 version, which is an impressive efficiency for a rocket SUV.
If I had to guess, I would say the larger pack will be around 100kWh and the smaller pack around 80kWh.
R2 NACS port
I think our Jamie Dow was the first to lift the cover off the R2 NACS charge port, but it was hidden a little low on the rear passenger side, which makes it a bit of a hassle for Superchargers. RJ went into some details on the thinking here, including that it will be convenient for current Rivian owners. I do wonder if this will present problems for Tesla Superchargers especially while towing.
Camp Compact Kitchen
Our accessories announcement post assumed that these products would be released in time for the R2. However, RJ said that these new products would be available for R1S/T owners as well and would be released much sooner. This means that the Camp/compact kitchen, complete with an induction oven, will be available soon for R1S and R1T owners. I valiantly offered to review this early, which I know you all would appreciate. Strangely, I’m also interested in the bike rack, tent, and particularly that removable hauler attachment, which can’t come soon enough.
R2 and R1 Bidirectional Charging
This was the first time I’ve heard anyone at Rivian acknowledge on the record that the R1S and R1T had bidirectional charging capability inside, waiting to be unlocked via a software update. That means a 240V inverter could be hung off of it like Ford’s Pro Power and Tesla’s CyberTruck to power a house in case of an outage. This is something that Rivian could “productize” almost immediately and get a good return on minimal investment.
The better news is that R2 will have an integrated 240V AC output option, though only 120V was shown at the event. RJ also said that the 240V AC output would be an upcoming R1S/T option, but it doesn’t sound like it can be retrofitted.
We’re going to keep working to find details here because I know a lot of you (and me) are chomping at the bit for this.
400V or 800V system?
RJ didn’t say on screen which system the battery would be but remarks off the call make me think that this will be a 400V system because of the cost savings aspect. The thinking is that bigger and more powerful vehicles would be better suited to 800V technologies, so perhaps the higher-performance R1/2/3 vehicles in the future will make more sense.
It also means that Rivian vehicles won’t have insanely fast charging compared to Cybertruck, Silverado/Hummer trucks or even Porsche/Hyundai cars but Rivian has been pushing the 400V charging speeds as fast as anyone.
Perhaps what I’ve heard most about Rivian’s presentation today, besides how much everyone wants the R3 and how remarkable it was kept a secret, was that it was refreshing to listen to a down-to-earth, earnest leader.
I’m under no illusion that there is an army of PR folks behind the camera in the interview making sure he reveals as few interesting pieces of news as possible, and you can tell RJ is PR-trained to a fault.
But it is really refreshing that little things like starting the event on time so as not to waste other people’s time, and you can tell this has actually been practiced and reduced to be succinct. Plus, talking to someone in a leadership role who not only knows their product inside and out but also doesn’t make me cringe feels great.
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EV sales kept up their momentum in December 2024, with incentives playing a big role, according to the latest Cox Automotive’s Kelley Blue Book report.
December’s strong EV sales saw an average transaction price (ATP) of $55,544, which helped push the industry-wide ATP higher, according to Kelley Blue Book. The December ATP for an EV was higher year-over-year by 0.8%, slightly below the industry average, and higher month-over-month by 1.1%. Tesla ATPs were higher year-over-year by 10.5%.
Incentives for EVs remained elevated in December, although they were slightly lower month-over-month at 14.3% of ATP, down from 14.7% in November.
EV incentives were higher by an impressive 41% year-over-year and have been above 12% of ATP for six consecutive months. Strong sales incentives, which averaged more than $6,700 per sale in 2024, were one reason EV sales surpassed 1.3 million units last year, according to Cox Automotive, a new record for volume and share.
(My colleague Jameson Dow reported yesterday, “In 2024, the world sold 3.5 million more EVs than it did in the previous year … This increase is larger than the 3.2 million increase in EV sales from the previous year – meaning that EV sales aren’t just up, but that the rate of growth is itself increasing.”)
Kelley Blue Book estimated that in December, approximately 84,000 vehicles – or 5.6% of total sales – transacted at prices higher than $80,000 – the highest volume ever. KBB lumps gas cars and EVs together into this luxury vehicle category, so this is where Tesla Cybertruck is slotted.
However, Tesla bundles sales figures of Cybertruck with Model S, Model X, and Tesla Semi(!) into a category it calls “other models,” so we don’t know for sure exactly how many Cybertrucks Tesla sold in Q4, much less in December. However, Electrek‘s Fred Lambert estimates between 9,000 and 12,000 Cybertrucks were sold in Q4, and that’s not a stellar sales figure.
What will January bring when it comes to EV ATPs? What about tax credits? Check back in a month and I’ll fill you in.
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Tesla is now claiming that Cybertruck was the ‘best-selling electric pickup in US’ last year despite not even reporting the number of deliveries.
There’s a lot of context needed here.
As we often highlighted, Tesla is sadly one of, if not the most, opaque automakers regarding sales reports.
Tesla doesn’t break down sales per model or even region.
For comparison, here’s Ford’s Q4 2024 sales report compared to Tesla’s:
You could argue that Tesla has fewer models than Ford, and that’s true, but Tesla’s report literally has two lines despite having six different models.
There’s no reason not to offer a complete breakdown like all other automakers other than trying to make it hard to verify the health of each vehicle program.
This has been the case with the Cybertruck. Tesla is bundling its Cybertruck deliveries with Model S, Model X, and Tesla Semi deliveries.
Despite this lack of disclosure, Tesla has been able to claim that the Cybertruck has become “the best-selling electric pickup truck” in the US in 2024:
It very well might be true. Ford disclosed 33,510 F-150 Lightning truck deliveries in the US in 2024 while most estimates are putting Cybertruck deliveries at around 40,000 units.
Those are global deliveries, but Tesla only delivered the Cybertruck in the US, Canada, and Mexico in 2024, and most of the deliveries are believed to be in the US.
However, there’s essential context needed here, as we highlighted in our recent ‘Tesla Cybertruck sales are disastrous‘ article.
First off, Tesla had a backlog of over 1 million reservations for the Cybertruck that it has been building since 2019. This led many to believe Tesla already had years of demand baked in for the truck and that production would be the constraint.
However, based on estimates, again, because Tesla refuses to disclose the data, Cybertruck deliveries were either flat or down in Q4 versus Q3 despite Tesla introducing cheaper versions of the vehicle and ramping up production.
Again, that’s after just about 40,000 deliveries.
Furthermore, with almost 11,000 deliveries in Q4 in the US, Ford more likely than not outsold Cybertruck with the F-150 Lightning in Q4.
Electrek’s Take
Tesla is in damage control here. There’s no doubt that it is having issues selling the Cybertruck.
Inventory is full of Cybertrucks and Tesla is now discounting them and offering free lifetime Supercharging.
Tesla is great at ramping up production, and it’s clear the Cybertruck is not production-constrained anymore. It is demand-constrained despite having over 1 million reservations.
Again, those reservations were made before Tesla unveiled the production version, which happened to have less range and cost significantly more.
The upcoming cheaper single motor version should help with demand, but I have serious doubts Tesla can ramp this program up to more than 100,000 units in the US.
As a reminder, Tesla installed a production capacity of 250,000 units annually and Musk said he could see Tesla selling 500,000 Cybertrucks per year.
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