The electric automaker Rivian dropped three surprises Thursday during the reveal of its new, more affordable SUV – including news that the vehicle will be made in Normal.
As expected, Rivian revealed that the new R2 is an SUV that looks very similar to the R1S SUV, but smaller and at a much lower starting price of $45,000. (The R1S starts at $74,900.)
But after introducing the R2 at Thursday’s event, Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe then announced two additional and unexpected models: the R3 crossover SUV and the sportier R3X. And most notably for Bloomington-Normal, Scaringe revealed a change of plans: R2 would be made first in Normal, instead of waiting for a new manufacturing plant to open in Georgia.
That will allow Rivian to speed up first deliveries of the R2 to the first half of 2026.
“We’re able to achieve that accelerated timing by leveraging our production capabilities in Normal. Using our Illinois site to launch R2 and get that into the market as quickly as we can. Now, our Georgia site remains really important to us. It’s core to the scaling across all these vehicles – between R2, R3, R3X – and we’re so appreciative of all the partnership we’ve had there. But being able to leverage the team, the skill, the passion we have in the Illinois facility to get that to the market and customers as quickly as possible, we’re just ecstatic about it.”
This story will be updated.
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