Rivian's second model line was supposed to be the affordable one. The first cars reaching driveways are not. In a delivery day walkthrough, Gjeebs collects a 2027 R2 Performance in launch green and reads the paperwork out loud: $57,990 to start, $2,000 for the limited paint, $375 in accessories, and a final figure of $68,332 once Arizona tax, registration and fees are added. The video reports 656 horsepower and 609 pound-feet of torque through an all wheel drive system, an 88 kWh battery pack, and a 0 to 60 mph time of 3.6 seconds. Those are numbers that would have looked expensive on a car twice the size five years ago. On a compact electric SUV, they arrive attached to a total most buyers were not planning for.
The gap between the headline price and the driveway price is the useful part of this video. Tax, registration and fees added close to $8,000 on their own, which is the line item people skip when they budget from a configurator page. The launch package itself bundles in extras: Gjeebs says it includes Autonomy Plus, described in the video as a $2,500 license tied to Rivian's future self driving software, plus a tow package and a color limited to this production run. He also says the car did not ship with a mobile charging cable and that buying one separately costs $400, which is a real cost for anyone without a hardwired home charger. For scale on how wide the electric price ladder now runs, State of Charge reported the same week that Ford's first Universal EV platform pickup will start at $28,350 before destination. Different vehicle, different mission, same shopping window. One more paperwork detail from the video: Gjeebs says another owner pointed out that Rivian's purchase agreement carries an arbitration clause buyers can opt out of, and that he plans to opt out.
Much of the walkthrough is spent on where Rivian saved money, and the host is direct about it. He describes a deliberate split: soft materials and padding above the waistline, hard plastic below it, with the same carpet used in the more expensive R1 models. Seats, armrest and steering wheel get his highest marks, and he says he prefers the R2 wheel to the one in the R1. The cup holders are the one touch point he criticizes, calling their travel rough. The center screen measures 15.6 inches diagonally on a new 2.0 software build he says moves between menus noticeably faster than the older system. Other details from the video: a built in garage door opener, a magnetic phone pad that holds a phone through hard acceleration, 9.6 inches of ground clearance, adaptive dampers rather than air springs, heated and ventilated seats that he says are effective but audible, and rear seats that do not recline. He notes two small paint blemishes on delivery and says the car arrived showing 75 miles. On the drive, his read is that the R2 feels more composed than his air sprung R1S, which he attributes partly to the R2 being roughly 2,000 pounds lighter, with the caveat that some road noise and low frequency resonance comes through the chassis. He likes the drive mode range, which covers soft, moderate and firm damping plus off road settings, and calls the mid range acceleration between 50 and 70 mph the most surprising part of the car. Practical notes include a NACS charge port on the rear left, a manual tailgate that latches itself once lowered, a deep sub trunk under the cargo floor with a 120 volt outlet, and a button that drops all five windows at once.
Bottom line: If you were waiting for the R2 to be the cheap Rivian, this is not that car, and it was never going to be. Launch editions are how manufacturers get paid for going first, and buyers who want the limited paint and the autonomy license are paying for the privilege. The number that actually matters is a base R2 with no color upgrade and no launch bundle. Everything in this video suggests the hardware underneath is good enough to carry that cheaper trim without embarrassing itself. If you can wait, wait.
Commentary on a third-party video. Figures and claims are as presented in the source and have not been independently verified. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will correct it.