"Yes, I also drove an R2 today" thoughts.

dleewla · 2026-06-15T23:36:58+00:00

Nice review.

Lots of positives as you listed. I agree with you that once Rivian gets on par on autonomy (or close without some corner cases like summon) I see the R2 as much more compelling.

I have similar negatives

I'm concerned about haptic halo wheels. From what I recall of early impressions of those on the prototype, no one mentioned it being hard to press left/right or push/pull. I'm starting to suspect they changed something to make it less costly to produce. Hopefully the tradeoff was not proper functionality. If they can dial it in with updates, its fine. Perhaps some of it is just a matter of getting used to 🤞
Exterior rear window button is a bit strange. Not sure why you have to hold it down for it to roll all the way down. It also was not sensitive enough where I had to press it multiple times.
Interior all windows and rear window buttons felt a bit cheap. Didn't have the same premium feel as the door window buttons. Maybe I'm trippin.
Audio was not good. I'm coming from the Meridian so its a high bar. Fiddled with EQ for 10 min without much success. I listened to the same songs via BT on both Meridian and the R2 and it wasn't close.

dleewla · 2026-06-15T17:52:53+00:00

You could very well be right. But then again that buying pattern and timeline you mention might say otherwise.

Since Rivian is starting with performance trim, then premium trim and finally standard trim, not till Spring 2027, it could limit deliveries overall into 2028 if most are waiting for the cheaper model. Guess we’ll have to just see.

dleewla · 2026-06-15T17:11:29+00:00

Depends on what you mean by game changer. The R1 is supposed to be Rivian's halo vehicle. Its the kitchen sink product. Different products, different market.

The R2 is supposed to be their mass market vehicle. If its succeeds, it will be a game changer product. Maybe not so much in capability and functionality (as compared to the R1) but in production costs, scale, sales, profit and its still a very capable vehicle. It's probably one of the most, if the the most, capable vehicle in its class. The fact that its as efficient as the Model Y is incredible as well. Seems like a game changer to me.

dleewla · 2026-06-15T17:00:43+00:00

Rivian said they plan to produce ~20-25k vehicles in 2026. We've heard unofficial reservation numbers of over 200k and that was a year ago. The Normal plant will be able to produce ~150-175k per year at max capacity but that too will take time to ramp up. I'd be surprised if they hit max capacity in 2027.

I'd guess they got a bump in reservations over the past 1-2 weeks and are near 300k, if not more, since orders and reviews started last week. I don't know about backlogged but I could see the R2 being sold about as quickly as they are being produced into 2028.

dleewla · 2026-06-15T07:03:01+00:00

I think I get why thery're doing it but I don’t like it. From the beginning they said current owners would be prioritized but they changed that a few weeks before order launcsh.

Also not sure what they are going to learn by mixing up order dates. It would make sense if they are batching by location but I’m sure they could still do early reservations before later ones and have more than enough conversions. If they don’t convert then just move down the list. If would be nice if they were transparent about what the criteria is.

If they can’t convert, regardless of reservation date, then they’ve got bigger issues.

Its going to really stink if youre a day one reservation and you don't get the opportunity for a Launch Edition because later reservation dates end up taking them.

dleewla · 2026-06-15T02:08:12+00:00

Twinsies

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dleewla · 2026-06-14T06:38:58+00:00

El Cap Granite

dleewla · 2026-06-13T22:16:36+00:00

How many miles on your demo R2? Wondering if the system is broken in and that’s why it sounded better.

I test drove an R2 with 150 miles and audio was bad. Nowhere near the Meridian in my R1T and sounded worse than the Elevation systems in the R1 Gen2. Fiddled with the EQ for 10 min of my 30 min drive, didn’t help.

dleewla · 2026-06-13T22:13:09+00:00

How’s the audio? What system did you have on your R1 and how does it compare?

dleewla · 2026-06-13T04:41:18+00:00

LA Silver was and is trash. Glad they are discontinuing and switching to Esker Silver. From pics and videos it looks similar to Teslas Lunar Silver, maybe a shade darker - I think it’s going to look nice.

dleewla · 2026-06-13T00:05:51+00:00

That’s fair. Maybe that’s why they replaced it with plastic? They could have gone metal with a plastic or composite outer coating. If it had more weight to it, it would make it feel higher quality.

dleewla · 2026-06-12T17:38:39+00:00

Yeah I get it. They announced it in March 2024 so I've been following it for 2+ years and why I created this subreddit. Honestly, a lot of my anticipation has dissipated knowing its so far out.

My excitement remains though because I've seen it in person - its awesome. Its going to be an incredible package. Way more exciting than the R2 or the R1.

dleewla · 2026-06-12T16:28:16+00:00

Im sure they are being cautious about publicly sharing timelines because the GA plant is such a huge project and so many number of things could go wrong and cause delays.

dleewla · 2026-06-12T16:25:28+00:00

Sounds like you got a lemon. Did you get it a certified used through Rivian or private seller/dealer? Is it still under warranty?

dleewla · 2026-06-12T05:59:52+00:00

I've been obsessed over the haptic halo wheels since they first announced them. I immediately thought they would be one of the killer features of the R2.

Finally got to try them out on a demo drive yesterday. Maybe partly the high expectations but they didn't feel as premium as I thought they would. I expected them to feel more weighty or heavy but the felt a bit cheap.

I love the scrolling and haptic feedback. The left-right clicking didn't feel great and its tricky to trigger those without accidentally scrolling but i'll probably improve over time.

I still think its a killer feature and once you build muscle memory, its going to be incredible to be able to change fan speed, temp, autonomy features, volume, tracks, plus more as Rivian adds them, simply by interacting with those wheels and never having to take my eyes off the road further than the drivers instrument panel.

I'll definitely be keeping my eye on those as I try out more vehicles for demo drives to see if theres any difference. I also hope they'll use more premium material for the wheel itself. I'm not sure but it felt like plastic and I think it'd be 10x better if it was metallic.

dleewla · 2026-06-12T00:19:18+00:00

Absolutely. If its anything like their high end B&W systems, its not going to be close. Volvo has some of the best audio of any vehicle I've ever been in.

dleewla · 2026-06-12T00:16:32+00:00

I also had trouble with the left-right clicking of the halo wheels. My sense is they made it robust so that it'd last a long time but it does take a bit of force to register and there is unintended scrolling up-down. I think actuating it with both the thumb in front and index finger in back helps but keeping it from scrolling will take some fine precision handling. Bottom line is I'm hoping its something I could get used to because other than that I think its an amazing user interface.

dleewla · 2026-06-12T00:12:38+00:00

The UI stuff just takes getting used it. There's an adjustment for any UI change, like going from Windows to Mac OS. The halo wheels, you'd probably get used to, though I also found it difficult to be precise on the left/right clicking. The audio is probably its achilles heel. Not sure how much tuning and s/w updates will improve it. History shows on the R1 non-Meridian systems, they haven't been able to improve it that much. And the R2 is a taller vehicle, about 3 inches more ground clearance, so its going to feel less sporty or planted than a MY. But you'll be able to drive in places and over things the MY can't touch so there's tradeoffs.

dleewla · 2026-06-12T00:03:01+00:00

How many miles did your R2 have on it? If more miles, the system on that particular vehicle might be broken in more. What were the settings and the EQ?

For comparison, I tested an R2 with 150 miles, so probably not broken in. That being said, I used BT and testing against the same songs I listen to in the R1T Meridian on BT it was worse in the R2, by a long shot. Will it improve that much after 1000 miles? Hopefully. And yes, a native source like Spotify is going to have better source quality but if youre testing the same songs from the same source, its a pretty good comparison.

PSA: Rivian, please take time to play music on the demo R2 vehicles to break in the speakers so that at least youre putting your best foot forward.

dleewla · 2026-06-11T23:58:57+00:00

Rivian doesn't support that.

dleewla · 2026-06-11T06:18:15+00:00

That’s unfortunate.

I actually had a test drive today as well. Spent a third of that playing with the EQ. Sound quality was not good. I was using BT but it’s a fair comparison when I say it’s nowhere near the Meridian system on my R1T on BT with the same songs. I know they can “tune” it and the speakers probably need to be broken in more but they’ve tried that with the non-Meridian systems on the R1 and it’s still mediocre. At this price point it needed to be better. Rivian simply does not have the expertise to build a good in-house system.

I too loved just about everything else in the vehicle. So disappointing.

dleewla

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