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Rivianjust surprise - announced an all - electric hatchback called the R3 — giving the company a bad Apple - esque “ one more thing ” promulgation at the event that was ostensibly supposed to be all about itsnew R2 SUV .
The hatching has a lot of designsimilaritiesto the Honda e , another electric hatchback door that capture the intellect of a lot of prospective EV buyers a few years ago and is remindful of the boxier Volkswagen Golf . And it represents an entirely new marketplace of small eV for Rivian to examine and play in — crucially , one that Tesla presently dominates . While we have intercourse Rivian was working on an “ R3 , ” I ’m not certain many people require it to depend quite like this .
Unfortunately , the company did n’t instantly share any real detail about when the R3 will be available , or how much it will cost . It ’s likely still years out from production . chief executive officer RJ Scaringe imply onstage at Thursday ’s event that it will be build at the company ’s new factory in Georgia , which is not yet built .
What we do experience is the R3 will have a more or less curt wheelbase compare to the R2 — 2800 millimetre versus 2935 mm — and there will be a sporty , colorful R3X form . It will be built on the R2 ’s platform ( which wo n’t be confusing whatsoever ) and will be “ more affordable ” than the $ 45,000 R2 . Much like the R2 , the R3 will be uncommitted in single- , double- , and tri - motor variants . Unlike the R2 , the company is not yet adopt preorders .
“ [ R3 ] strike the promotion of R2 , and the platform , it wither it , it puts it into our take on what is a crossover , and . . . it ’s almost hard to limit what it is , but it so beautifully trance our brand and beguile what we represent as a company , ” Scaringe say during the event
It is something of a shaft in the arm for the company , though , which is slated to build approximately as many cars this twelvemonth as it did in 2023 — intelligence that Wall Street took poorly . The R3 is a near - terminus locating for that , plain , as Rivian ’s stock price soar after the surprisal reveal .
Many questions continue , especially on price and range , or whether what we see Thursday is even a work prototype . But it ’s novel to see that a company that get its commencement on tremendous , clayey pickup trucks and SUVs is work on something much more reachable and , perhaps , even more affordable .
