Kyle Conner drove the Rivian R2 in Utah, and he came back with something unusually direct for a launch-event video: a genuine opinion. The headline is that Rivian mostly nailed the powertrain. The R2 ditches the R1's front-primary bias in favor of a rear-primary setup with a disconnecting front axle, and the result is a car that drives like it was actually designed that way, rather than one that happens to have four-wheel drive. At 656 horsepower with a 3.6-second zero-to-60 claim for the launch Performance trim, the numbers are strong. The experience backs them up above 50 mph, where the R2 builds power progressively rather than peaking early. Conner had two R2s to work with on the day: one on 21-inch all-season tires and one on 20-inch all-terrain rubber.
The R2 competes most directly against the Tesla Model Y, which starts around $44,990 in its base rear-wheel-drive configuration and tops out near $57,990 for the Performance trim. Rivian's Performance launch edition starts at $57,990 before the $1,495 destination charge, making it price-comparable to the Model Y Performance. Where the R2 makes a different trade is in the suspension: it runs MacPherson struts and passive sway bars instead of air suspension, though the performance trim gets single-valve semi-active dampers. That alone matters. A base-spec R2 without those dampers is a different car in the corners than the one being reviewed here. Buyers shopping below $57,990 should drive both configurations before committing.
The brake-by-wire system drew the most nuanced commentary. Conner flagged that in moderate braking on coarser pavement, the rear axle was carrying too much of the load, producing a drag he described as a dog dragging itself along the ground. He later softened that critique, noting it was surface-dependent and that around-town stops felt normal. Off-road, the one-pedal drive was a different story entirely: precise, progressive, and better than anything the R1 manages at low speed. The charging session at a Rivian Adventure Network stall showed 187 kW at 44 percent state of charge, peaking near 190 kW just below 50 percent. That puts the R2 ahead of Rivian's 175 kW figure for the Gen 2 R1 in warm-battery conditions. The HVAC system, absence of camp mode at launch, and sound system quality were all flagged as work in progress.
Bottom line: This is the most technically rigorous R2 first drive available at launch, and it earns that distinction. Conner is buying one and has already disclosed it, which keeps the review honest. The rear-bias powertrain is a genuine improvement over the R1's front-primary architecture. The remaining issues, namely brake calibration on certain surfaces, HVAC tuning, and missing software features, are exactly the kind of things Rivian fixes over the air. If you want to understand what makes the R2 different at a mechanical level, this is the video to watch before any other.