Rivian's Cheap New SUV Has One Little Problem

[00:01] (intense up beat music)

[00:15] We—I don't know if you like snakes  or not—but holy smokes. I am personally not the   biggest fan of snakes, but I also don't want  to get the tires dirty. If anyone knows what   kind of snake this is, he's big. You’ve got  to get out of the trail, buddy. Okay, go.

[00:33] professionals. There we go. Adios,  dude. All right, back to driving. Up until today, the best-selling car  in the world was the Tesla Model Y,   followed closely by the Toyota RAV4. It's just  a compact SUV style of vehicle that people want.  

[00:50] Today, Rivian is throwing their hat into the ring  with the new Rivian R2, which has the footprint of   the Model Y but the ability to take adventures off  the beaten path. You know, it's got personality. Rivian's R2 has more horsepower than a Ford  F-250 Super Duty and faster acceleration than  

[01:07] a V8 Ford Mustang, all while keeping the  ground clearance of a stock Jeep Wrangler.   Hills are never quite as steep on camera as  they are in real life, but one thing I really   like about electric vehicles and off-roading  in general is just how quiet it is.

[01:20] (the sound of sweet nothings) It's so cool. It is seriously like a Tesla and a  Jeep had a baby; you get the quietness of   an electric vehicle with the "off-roadiness"  of a Jeep. (Those are the technical terms.)

[01:37] To compete with the best-selling vehicles on  the planet and cut about 50% off of the bill   of materials, Rivian has swapped the suspension  from the active airbags that we see on the R1s   to passive springs, passive roll bars, and  semi-active dampers. The structural battery  

[01:52] pack is made up of 768 battery cells. These become  the floor of the R2, and all of these serviceable   components sit in a little "treehouse" module  on top of the battery, right underneath the rear   seats for easier long-term serviceability.  Not many people talk about Rivian's 8-year,  

[02:08] 120,000-mile drivetrain and battery warranty,  but that peace of mind is pretty priceless. I'm impressed by how well they were able to  chop the price in half while still keeping   all the aura of Rivian intact. Now that  we are sufficiently off the beaten path,  

[02:22] let's take a look around the inside of  the Rivian R2, because there are three   Easter eggs they've included that  I'm sure you don't know about yet. We'll get to the front trunk in a second,  but I really like that there are tow hooks  

[02:36] the outdoors. We have the same pull handles  that we have on the other Rivian vehicles. it's just the NACS port that Tesla uses,"  but nope. Rivian has actually made a maze  

[02:51] on the inside of the charging port  door. The start point is here,   and you work your way all the way down to the end  point here. You know, if they got to the point of   adding Easter eggs to the vehicle, the rest of  the details are equally as well thought out.

[03:03] Let's check out the other Easter egg, and  it's in the frunk. It is a power-open, but a   manual-close. Right here underneath the Rivian  logo, there are three lines. If I press that,   the whole hood opens up. Inside of here,  there's enough storage space for some golf  

[03:18] clubs or carry-on luggage. But the Easter egg  is in here: the windshield wiper fluid lid. It's   actually a frog and a skunk. Which since it's a  frog and a skunk... Frog. Skunk. Frunk. Anyway,  

[03:34] it's an Easter egg. I will manually close it;  it'll latch and then pull it in by itself. The other Easter egg is inside the cab. We  still have the flashlight in the door handle,   which is just ya know a staple of Rivian's  designs. Also, I did not know this,  

[03:48] but Rivian makes a hand warmer/power  bank that fits inside of the same sleeve,   so you can always have a power bank with  you. Also, you can warm your hands in the   winter. Anyway, it's very easy to  swap out between the two of them.

[04:01] One thing I like about the R2 is that even  though it's like half the price of—well,   we don't know official pricing yet—but even though  it's close to half the price of the original R1s,   we still have a blinker stalk as well as two  screens. When you're driving down the road,  

[04:15] you're able to see how fast you're  going as well as a map in front of   I feel like the cameras are almost cheating.  And then the other Easter egg—I'll move this  

[04:27] water—is down here underneath the  rubber mat. Underneath the rubber   storage space cover is a little diagram of all  the accessories you can put in this cubby hole,   There are a few things that Rivian changed from  their launch event. We still have the dual glove  

[04:45] boxes for storage space, but the front seats do  not recline flat anymore. I'll show you the back   here in a second. But up here, we have a button  that rolls down all windows at once, as well as   another button that rolls down the back glass. I  am glad that Rivian left both screens. And one of  

[05:02] the big additions are these giant wheels that  Rivian is calling their "Haptic Halo" wheels. The Halo haptic wheels are kind of crazy. Not  only are they gigantic—one on either side of   the steering wheel—but they are accessible  from both the front and the rear. Let's say  

[05:16] and when the dial reaches the end of the volume  meter (in Rivian's case, it stops at 30),   the electric motor inside of the Halo wheels  will change the haptic feedback so that the  

[05:29] clicking stops and the dial stops rotating.  It feels very much like a physical stop. So I'm very interested in how they  accomplished it all with just motors   changing the temperature or the power of the  air vents—without having to reach over and  

[05:46] touch a digital display. It'll also help  control the assistive driving features,   like the follow distance behind cars, as Rivian  rolls out their point-to-point autonomous driving. Before we jump into the back, I do want  to show one thing I don't like as much.  

[05:59] Here on the driver's seat, it is just a push  button which unlocks the latch over there.   The emergency exit is right here next to my  water bottle; you can just pull this latch,  

[06:12] which physically lets you out of  the vehicle in case of an emergency. And then back here, if we open up this door,  this is also a digital electronic latch. For   the emergency lock, you have to pop this out  and then pull a cord. Which adding complexity  

[06:26] in an emergency isn't my favorite thing, so I do  wish they had physical latches on all four doors. Coming back in here, we have three full-size  seats with plenty of legroom. This is my   driving position, and there's seriously  so much legroom back here. I'm going to  

[06:40] lay the seats down flat. We can roll down the  rear window here. Also, back here, we have the   raised Rivian lettering and a button right here  which opens up the whole back hatch so that you  

[06:52] can camp out inside. Rivian does sell mattresses  that are going to fit back here, as well as room   for a spare (not a full-size spare) or just plenty  of extra storage space underneath the floor pan.

[07:06] ability to tow. If we take off the aero  cover, right there is the tow hitch. We   don't know the official tow rating of the R2  yet, but since it's half the price of an R1,  

[07:18] the seven-pin adapter, I'm imagining that  they've designed it to tow quite a bit. I also like how Rivian incorporated their  logo into the side marker lights as well  

[07:30] as the turn signals. The top still has  two attachment points for the roof racks,   which fit the rooftop tent or kayaks;  it wouldn't be an adventure vehicle   without the ability to store stuff on the  roof. Also, right here on the windshield,  

[07:42] there's a little Gear Guard face. And right here  in the hood—this piece of plastic right here,   this vent—is called a cowling. There is  a very small "owl in the cowl." Creative.

[07:56] me where they are or what they are. That is for  owners to find. Now, I've owned a Tesla Model Y,   so it makes me especially qualified to compare the  driving experiences between Tesla and Rivian's R2.  

[08:12] I'd have to say that the extra three inches of  ground clearance and additional wheel travel make   the ride exponentially smoother on Rivian's R2.  Speed bumps are about to file for unemployment. I'm impressed that Rivian made a competent  adventure vehicle at half the price of  

[08:27] their flagship models. However, one thing I  would like to say to Rivian—and recommend,   and maybe you can help me out down in  the comments—now that we have the R2,   maybe we can make an R2T: a truck version of  the less expensive adventure vehicle. Let them  

[08:42] know down in the comments. And thanks a  ton for watching. I'll see you around.