Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe says the upcoming R3 crossover will come in “materially lower” than the R2 on price, and that a follow-up model, the R4, will push prices down further still.

He didn’t give a number. But it’s the clearest sign yet that Rivian plans to keep walking its lineup down toward the heart of the market after the R2 launch.

Scaringe made the comments in a Corner Office interview with The New York Times published this weekend. Asked whether Rivian was working on something cheaper than the R2, he joked that the next product is one “we creatively call R3.”

“We haven’t announced pricing yet, but it will move materially lower,” Scaringe said, adding that R4 “again moves that further.”

This is where it gets tricky. The R2 is widely described as a $45,000 SUV, and that’s how the Times framed it too. But that’s not a car you can buy today.

When Rivian revealed the full R2 lineup and pricing in March, only the $57,990 Performance launch edition was scheduled for 2026. The $53,990 Premium follows late this year, the $48,490 Standard Long Range in early 2027, and the $45,000 Standard RWD isn’t due until late 2027.

So “materially lower than R2” could mean a lot of things depending on which R2 you pick as the baseline.

The best reference we have is Scaringe’s own. He previously said R3 would bring Rivian into the “mid to high 30s.” That lines up with a product priced materially below a $45,000 base R2.

Rivian plans to build the R3 at its Georgia factory, where production is scheduled to start in 2028. The plant is designed for 400,000 units of annual capacity across two phases.

As for R4, Scaringe previously described R4 and R5 as sibling vehicles on an entirely new platform, and said there were no engineering teams on them yet. Nothing in this interview suggests that’s changed much. For now, R4 is a price direction with no date attached.

The R2, for its part, is doing what Rivian needed it to do. The company raised its 2026 delivery guidance to 65,000 to 70,000 vehicles after R2 deliveries started in June, up from roughly 42,000 last year. It’s still losing money though, with an adjusted EBITDA loss guided at $1.8 billion to $2 billion this year.

Scaringe also explained why Rivian couldn’t lead with a cheap car. As an unproven startup buying parts for the R1, Rivian had no leverage and budgeted for a “40 percent or 50 percent premium” on supplier pricing. That relationship has flipped, according to Scaringe, and those same suppliers’ CEOs are now the ones making the trip to pitch Rivian.

I like the direction, and I like that Scaringe keeps repeating it. Rivian is running the same flagship-first playbook Tesla used to get from the Model S to the Model 3, and so far it’s executing better than most expected. Electrek’s Seth Weintraub drove the R2 and came away seriously considering it to replace his Model Y.

With the R2 ramping up, bringing Rivian closer to profitability, and then the smaller and cheaper R3, Rivian is going to be in a great position for a global expansion with a more complete and profitable lineup within the next few years.

This is exciting. If it all goes well, the US will have another strong all-electric automaker. One that doesn’t come with all the weird baggage…

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