Rivian will reveal its smaller, cheaper R2 SUV on March 7 | TechCrunch

Rivian will reveal its next-generation vehicle — a smaller, cheaper electric SUV known as R2 — on March 7, the company announced Monday morning.

There’s little other detail about the event, though it’s expected to be held in Laguna Beach, California, as the company recently filed paperwork for an event there under the title “RIVIAN R2 LAUNCH.”

The R2 is a big opportunity for Rivian. It’s supposed to retail in the $40,000-$60,000 range, making it far more affordable than the R1S SUV and R1T pickup truck the company’s been selling for the last two years. Rivian CEO and founder RJ Scaringe has said the R2 will be made at a larger scale than its current vehicles.  The R2 won’t be available until at least 2026, though, as the company still needs to build the factory in Georgia where it plans to make the SUV.

Rivian built more than 57,000 vehicles in 2023 and delivered just over 50,000, including the commercial vans it makes for Amazon. But it’s still losing thousands of dollars on every one of the trucks and SUVs it makes on the R1 platform. The platform that powers the R2 SUV should be more efficient and, when produced at scale, could help the company push itself into profitability — especially as Rivian builds other vehicles on the new platform.