- What's new: We bought a Rivian R2 Performance for our One-Year Road Test fleet.
- Why it matters: The R2 is Rivian's smaller electric SUV, competing squarely with vehicles like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Tesla Model Y.
- Edmunds says: The R2 takes a lot of what we loved about our old R1T long-termer and distills it into a smaller package. We're looking forward to living with one for a year.
2027 Rivian R2: What's It Like to Live With?
Rivian's smaller electric SUV impressed us right out of the gate. Will we still feel the same way after a year of testing?
The Rivian R2 is arguably the company's most important vehicle yet. Sure, the R1T truck and R1S SUV set the tone for the electric carmaker, but the R2 competes with a larger swath of vehicles at a lower price point. This is Rivian's SUV for the masses. So, naturally, we've added one to Edmunds' One-Year Road Test fleet to see how the R2 holds up over the long haul.
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What we bought
Rivian launched the R2 in top-end Performance trim, so that's the one we got. The less expensive Premium and Standard models might end up being the ones we recommend in the long run, but we didn't want to wait for those to arrive in order to get an R2 into our One-Year Road Test fleet.
The Performance is powered by an 87.9-kWh battery and a pair of electric motors, making a healthy 656 horsepower and 609 lb-ft of torque. Rivian says the R2's peak charging rate is 210 kW, which we look forward to testing. And while the EPA estimates the R2 Performance will return 330 miles of range, we saw a bit less than that in our real-world Edmunds EV Range Test.
We had our R2 painted in Launch Green — the same color we had on our old long-term Rivian R1T — and we stuck with the standard 21-inch wheels and all-season tires. (The green is a $2,000 upcharge.) We really wanted the Borealis purple color, but that color wasn't available at the time of our order.
Because we got one of the first R2s to go on sale, it came with the Launch Package that includes a towing kit and Rivian's Autonomy+ driver assistance suite. All told, we paid $61,485 for our R2, including a $1,495 destination fee.
Tested: Here's how the Rivian R2 performed
Like all vehicles that come through the Edmunds garage, we put our 2027 Rivian R2 through our full range of instrumented testing. Here are the results.
2027 Rivian R2 Performance | Edmunds test results |
|---|---|
| Battery | 87.9 kWh |
| Motors | two |
| Power | 656 hp |
| Torque | 609 lb-ft |
| Driveline | all-wheel drive |
| Weight | 4,975 pounds |
| 0-30 mph | 1.8 seconds |
| 0-45 mph | 2.7 seconds |
| 0-60 mph | 3.7 seconds |
| 0-75 mph | 4.8 seconds |
| Quarter mile | 11.3 seconds @ 127.7 mph |
| 60-0 mph braking | 128 feet |
| Lateral grip (200-foot skidpad) | 0.83 g |
| Sound at idle | 37.1 dB |
| Sound at 70 mph | 66.8 dB |
| Price as tested | $61,485 |
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