The Rivian R3X Will Be Next To Arrive After The R2: CEO

"Then we’ll bring in base R3 after R3X," CEO RJ Scaringe said in a podcast. He also dove deep into Rivian's Volkswagen partnership.

Rivian R3X Introduced

Photo by: InsideEVs

Patrick George

By: Patrick George

Jul 22, 2024 at 3:00pm ET

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You loved the Rivian R3X, right? Of course you did—you have two eyes and a heart, don't you? Rivian's upcoming compact performance crossover, inspired by classic 1980s hot hatchbacks and rally cars, broke the internet when it made its surprise debut earlier this year. Of course, it's unfortunately years away from being released. But now we have more information about where the R3X will stand in Rivian's new pecking order.

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe offered up new details about the R3X in a wide-ranging interview with The Verge's Editor-in-Chief Nilay Patel for the latter's Decoder podcast. That podcast is absolutely worth a listen in full, as is reading the transcript if that's more your jam; it's one of the more extensive interviews Scaringe has done as of late on the heels of some developments that have made 2024 Rivian's most promising year to date.

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Rivian's journey from startup to stable

Rivian shows tremendous promise as an EV startup and technology company, but like many, it has yet to turn a profit. Getting mainstream models like the R2 and R3 on the road will help, but Rivian plans to make its R1 models profitable by Q4 2024 as well.

Rivian, as you may know, is extremely hot right now. The updated R1S and R1T are on sale now with significant improvements under the skin that could make them profitable electric models by the end of this year. The R1S is now one of the top-selling EVs in the country, and the bestselling premium vehicle EV and the best-selling large SUV (agnostic of what powers it) in California. The startup received considerable hype for its new R2 and R3 models, and that only skyrocketed when it announced a new partnership to develop electric architectures with Volkswagen.

So this Decoder podcast is a must-listen, because Scaringe tells us a lot of things we hadn't heard before. Especially of note is the fact that after the R2 is released in the first half of 2026 (if all goes according to plan, of course) the R3X will come next. No solid date yet, but we do get some new details.

Gallery: Rivian R3X

Rivian R3X

"It’s probably the car that we get the most questions about, and I mean the packaging on it is just exceptional," Scaringe said. "As soon as we possibly can, but we’re not giving a date. So, what we’re doing with this new platform is we’re launching R2 first, allowing some time to get that stable, and then launching R3. I will say this: The first R3 that we’re launching, it’s going to start with R3X, and then we’ll bring in base R3 after R3X."

He added, "We all want so bad [to] get the R3X in as soon as possible," indicating the people in the company share the excitement over the model. No specs have been released either, but we know it will use the R2's new lower-cost platform; offer a tri-motor configuration standard; and should pack at least 300 miles of range and a Tesla-style NACS plug from the factory. And with three electric motors and more ground clearance than the R3, it should be an incredible performance machine.

Scaringe also elaborated on how the Volkswagen joint venture will work. While some details of that arrangement remain to be seen, but Rivian is getting up to $5 billion to help Volkswagen get past its longtime struggles with software and electrical architectures. (It's doing a similar partnership with XPeng for EVs in China.)

"What we’re providing is that architecture," Scaringe said. "We’ll provide the topology of the ECUs, along with the base operating system. That’s both for the infotainment platform, but also for the real-time operating system. There’s a few different operating systems we’ve built, and then everything around over-the-air updates and connectivity."

But forget new VWs operating just like Rivians on the software side, and vice-versa. "What we won’t be providing is our user interface," Scaringe said. "In all the different products this platform will go into, the user interface is actually an abstraction at the top of the stack. A vehicle may have three screens, it may have two screens, it may have 10 screens. That’s relatively simple to change what the UI looks like, but everything underneath will be really heavily commonized using our architecture."

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Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com

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