The Cheapest Rivian R2 Just Got a Price Cut and Is Coming Sooner

The base Rivian R2 is getting a price cut. Today Rivian announced the base rear-wheel-drive Rivian R2 will cost $46,485, a nearly $2,000 cut from the price the company originally announced for the base R2. The R2 has the job of appealing to more buyers and extending the brand's reach beyond the much more expensive R1T and R1S models. 

The lower starting price lowers the barrier not only to the R2 but also to the Rivian brand as a whole, and that's a big deal. The announcement also revealed that the base R2 will be available sooner than expected. Timing for the base car's availablility has been pulled up to summer of 2027 as opposed to late 2027. By the time that model is available for buyers, the R2 lineup will have four total trims. We detail all of them in the chart below, and all of the prices listed include Rivian's $1,495 destination charge. 

We recently got behind the wheel of the R2 for the first time, and we're happy to report that Rivian nailed it. The R2 is competent, composed, easy to live with, and full of little touches that give it real character. You can read our full review of the R2 right here. 

Rivian is ramping up its production efforts. The brand's lone production facility in Normal, Illinois, currently produces the R1T and R1S. It will also make the first batch of R2s until the company's plant in Georgia is fully up and running. Once production ramps up there, Rivian plans to produce around 300,000 cars a year, and most of those will be R2s until the smaller, even cheaper and more hatchback-like R3 shows up in 2028.