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Rivian R2: Electric Mid-Size SUV

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Re: Rivian R2: Electric Mid-Size SUV

#91

Post by pertymcpert »

pixelatedindex wrote: post #69
cchance wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ya same, i can't see spending as much as i did on my first tesla 5+ years ago, the depreciations just too steep, hopefully that holds for rivian too and i'll pick one up in a couple years the R2 is really nice. That said, china BEV's are 1/2 the cost even accounting for import costs to the USA lol so sort of points toward a issue with US companies at the moment

Do they depreciate any worse than their gas counterparts? You’re also saving money on gas and maintenance - that’s gotta count for something, no?

In California with PG&E which most people have, no you don't save much. It's different if you can charge for free at work.

And yes EVs depreciated worse than any other vehicle.

Re: Rivian R2: Electric Mid-Size SUV

#92

Post by shitloadofbooks »

hn_acc1 wrote: post #7

Haptic steering wheel thumb-wheels instead of actual buttons? Hell no. Full pass. And we're in the market for a vehicle like this in the next year or so, looking hard at Santa Fe Calligraphy, or Outback XT (similar size, similar price tag, AFAICT). No physical buttons = no sale.

My BYD Sealion 7 has been an absolute joy.

Re: Rivian R2: Electric Mid-Size SUV

#93

Post by socialcommenter »

hn_acc1 wrote: post #5

Can they fix that web page? That was so awful to try to get any info.. Just scroll, scroll, scroll and still just a bunch of big pictures and no meaningful info.

This was half the reason I posted to HN, honestly. I've seen several recent examples of modern product pages which render awfully because they're trying to be "quirky".

Edit: look at this, scrolling an entire screen only to have a photo zoom by https://imgur.com/a/G2Hfe3Q

Re: Rivian R2: Electric Mid-Size SUV

#94

Post by plugger »

I feel quite bad for people living in the United States. Despite the constant refrain about freedom y'all are actually pretty hindered when it comes to reasonably priced EVs. On Saturday I put a down on a BYD Shark 6 truck. Hopefully I'll collect it Friday, if not early next week. I'm paying $41,200 USD for the thing brand new. I saw a MotorTrend review of it last week, they flew down to Mexico City to test one out. The entry level pricing there is $50,060 USD. Here in Australia they're called the "Raptor Killer" as they will take Ford Ranger Raptors off the line and cost a bit more than half the price of the Raptor.

Re: Rivian R2: Electric Mid-Size SUV

#95

Post by stusmall »

seemaze wrote: post #57
toomuchtodo wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Average price of a new vehicle in the US is $50,000. This is priced appropriately considering total cost of ownership delta against a combustion vehicle. Rivian needs more volume for prices to decline from manufacturing efficiency at scale. https://www.axios.com/2024/12/19/cars-prices-inflation-suvs

A cursory search of the web shows that TCO for EVs in the US is higher than ICE for all but high mileage commuters. Wish it wasn't the case, but insurance alone is a 30% premium.

NYT recently did a fantastic calculator. It isn't simple flat one or the other is cheaper. It takes into account buy vs lease, milage, local energy cost, length of ownership etc

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/upshot/ev-vs-gas-ca...

Re: Rivian R2: Electric Mid-Size SUV

#96

Post by sholladay »

hn_acc1 wrote: post #7

Haptic steering wheel thumb-wheels instead of actual buttons? Hell no. Full pass. And we're in the market for a vehicle like this in the next year or so, looking hard at Santa Fe Calligraphy, or Outback XT (similar size, similar price tag, AFAICT). No physical buttons = no sale.

I think you’re confusing “haptic” for “capacitive”. The wheels are real, physical controls with motors to give tactile feedback about the state of the UI. You can literally feel where the beginning and end of a list are, for example. It’s even better than traditional buttons.

The only problem is that there aren’t also physical controls for media and climate, which there should be. But for everything else, the thumb wheels are going to be awesome.

Re: Rivian R2: Electric Mid-Size SUV

#97

Post by darth_avocado »

iambateman wrote: post #8

The R2 was the first time I seriously thought about spending up on a vehicle. It looks good. But $45k++ is just wild to me. It seems like the market is undervaluing used EV’s, so hopefully the depreciation curve will bring these down to $30k in a couple years for us old-school folks who prefer not to have a $1000/mo car loan.

> But $45k++ is just wild to me

It’s just surprising to me that this is surprising to anyone in 2026. New cars are no longer $20-30k in the US and haven’t been since 2021. Average transaction price is now $50k+, so if companies like Rivian that skip the dealership model charge $45k, it really isn’t that expensive. The only new cars under $30k are sedans and hatchbacks. And most of them start at almost $27-30k for base price not including all the bs dealership fees.

Re: Rivian R2: Electric Mid-Size SUV

#98

Post by dragonwriter »

pertymcpert wrote: post #91
pixelatedindex wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do they depreciate any worse than their gas counterparts? You’re also saving money on gas and maintenance - that’s gotta count for something, no?

In California with PG&E which most people have, no you don't save much. It's different if you can charge for free at work. And yes EVs depreciated worse than any other vehicle.

> In California with PG&E which most people have,

Most people in California don’t have PG&E. Most of the land area in the northern 2/3 of the State or so is covered by PG&E, but people and land area aren't the same thing. Southern California Edison alone serves almost as many people as PG&E, and other smaller utilities, including public utilities like LADWP, SMUD, Silicon Valley Power, etc., serve another big chunk of the population.

Re: Rivian R2: Electric Mid-Size SUV

#99

Post by wilg »

plugger wrote: post #94

I feel quite bad for people living in the United States. Despite the constant refrain about freedom y'all are actually pretty hindered when it comes to reasonably priced EVs. On Saturday I put a down on a BYD Shark 6 truck. Hopefully I'll collect it Friday, if not early next week. I'm paying $41,200 USD for the thing brand new. I saw a MotorTrend review of it last week, they flew down to Mexico City to test one out.…

A BYD Shark 6 is not an EV?

Re: Rivian R2: Electric Mid-Size SUV

#100

Post by baumy »

dalyons wrote: post #80
freetime2 wrote: post #60

Looks like a great car. As Marques Brownlee puts it [1], this is Rivian's "Model Y fighter". And I personally find the R2 to be much more appealing than a Model Y in terms of size, shape, and interior. But we have been misled so many times about EV prices prior to launch, I think it's important to wait until we see what it actually costs for different trim levels before making comparisons to the Model Y. That $45,000…

The RAV4 EV capacity is so small, the electric engine so weak (cuts to gas well before highway speed), and the charge speed so slow, that in practice its a 100% gas car. Only a small number of disciplined owners are going to be able to run it as an EV most of the time, as its actually impractical to do so. It’s a gas car, with greenwashing.

This is completely false. I own one. It goes up to the low 80s mph before the gas engine kicks in. Acceleration from a stop is sub 6 second 0-60. Hardly weak. Charges from fully empty to full in about 2.5 hours.

Mine gets a 40-45 mile all electric range. I drive 10-12k miles per year, and ignoring extended multi-day vacation road trips once every couple years, I fill up the tank 2-3 times per year.

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