Rivian needs R2 to work. I tested it to see if it’s good enough.

• Rivian is betting its R2 will catapult the EV maker into a viral sensation.
• I drove the $61,485 Performance trim, but cheaper versions may be the sweet spot.
• The R2 pairs goosebump-inducing speed with Rivian’s playful personality.

Instead of the typical, ugly horn blurt, it played a familiar jingle: the “buh BAH duh bah dah” instrumental riff in the “Ghostbusters” theme song.

“Oh my god, that’s awesome,” my dad, a giant “Ghostbusters” fan since the blockbuster movie came out in 1984, said over a FaceTime call. “Go back and play it again!”

I did. I think he heard the jingle five times on that call.

The R2 is Rivian’s big bet that the EV-maker is about to go viral. It’s the company’s third consumer vehicle, following the larger and much more expensive R1S three-row SUV and R1T pickup.

By contrast, the R2 hits two American car market sweet spots: its base price will eventually start at $44,990 (a few thousand dollars below America’s new-vehicle price average), and it’s sized similarly to the ever-popular Toyota RAV4.

So I drove the hotly anticipated EV about 200 miles through southern New York State to see whether it feels good enough to carry that burden.

My top-end $61,485 Performance tester was a hoot — but prospective buyers would likely be better off exercising some patience.

Injecting some blockiness into an egg-shaped segment

Most midsize EVs are slippery and egg-shaped, including America’s EV bestseller, the Tesla Model Y.

But look at the non-EV market. Gas-powered SUVs with similarly swept-back proportions have generally remained niche products, often sold as lower-volume offshoots of more conventional SUVs.

Take, for example, BMW’s lineup. Last year, the luxury manufacturer sold 76,546 units of the X3, its upright compact SUV. Its coupe-shaped equivalent, the X4, sold just 5,910 and was discontinued for the 2026 model year.

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe has repeatedly said the EV market needs more choices around the $50,000 mark, arguing that buyers have had to compromise on several issues, like aesthetics.

The R2 gives buyers something much closer to the upright SUV shape that dominates American sales — like the RAV4, Honda CR-V, or Nissan Rogue — without letting that form factor get boring.

Rivian carries over the stadium-shaped headlights made popular on the R1 series, giving its smaller SUV an instantly recognizable face. Inside, there are plenty of Rivian-isms, too: a huge glass roof, “Rivian” plates stitched into the seatbacks, and the flashlight hidden in the driver’s side door panel.

I wouldn’t buy the fastest R2

As you’ve probably guessed, my Performance tester was fast.

The SUV — which gets power from its dual-motor setup — gets a silly amount of oomph for highway merges. That’s hardly a surprise for Rivian, which gave its first generation of full-size EVs a dose of sports car urgency.

What surprised me was how much I wanted the R2 to calm down.

My favorite setting was Conserve, which softened the suspension and took some edge off the acceleration. In other words, my favorite version of the $61,485 Performance model was the one that made it act a little less like a Performance model.

My biggest complaint is the suspension.

At one point, I stopped for coffee with two other adults in the car. The passenger in the back seat was so worried about spilling his drink over a bump that he waited until we stopped again to take a sip.

Rivian knows how to have fun

You can tell the car company has spent a lot of time thinking about its own software, which has improved since I last tested the R1S over a year ago. Menus are clearer, information is easier to read at highway speeds, and the R2’s two haptic scroll wheels on the steering wheel felt weird for about an hour before becoming second nature.

(Though I still want a physical tab for adjusting the air vents.)

The R2 also gets the boring family-car stuff right. There’s storage seemingly everywhere — two glove boxes, a deep center console, a small frunk, and a large rear cargo area with additional space under the floor. Over seven hours of driving, mine averaged 3.4 miles per kWh.

Then there are the completely unnecessary things.

Rivian has turned Halloween software updates into a tradition. This year’s was “Ghostbusters”-themed, complete with green “slime” lighting, that lock jingle my dad loved, and a launch event where I somehow ended up meeting Bill Murray.

When Halloween ends, the theme disappears, and the R2 returns to its standard lock sound: naturally, it’s birds chirping.

Those are the little flourishes that Rivian hopes will set its blocky SUV apart.

After driving the $61,485 version, I’m convinced Rivian has a compelling mass-market product. I just think the versions that matter most are still coming.

Read the original article on Business Insider

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