The R1<\/a> was a genuinely capable off-roader that mostly went to Costco. So in the R2 you will find no grab handles\u2014the ones you white-knuckle on a real trail. When the trail does let you know its presence, you can just hold the bolsters on the door instead. It works well enough.<\/p>\nYou feel that restraint everywhere. Max Koff, the R2\u2019s lead engineer, told me they design so you can\u2019t read the org chart from the driver\u2019s seat. In a lot of cars you can feel which department big-footed another, where the money went and where it ran out. (In many legacy manufacturers, the accounting department seems to win too much.) In the R2 there\u2019s no losing team.<\/p>\n
Look at the rear door: full drop-down glass, no little fixed pane, no dip in the window line. Almost no car does that, and making it happen takes a surprising amount of coordination between teams. Good design is mostly the things you don\u2019t notice. The R2 doesn\u2019t preen or want to be mistaken for a gadget\u2014it\u2019s simple and dignified, the rare piece of modern hardware built to look proper 20 years from now rather than clever for one.<\/p>\n(Photo: Rivian)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nWhat you do notice is the R2\u2019s brain. Rivian likes to say the most powerful computer you own lives in your driveway, and on the highway you believe it. Their hands-free system holds a lane with a calm earlier cars never had\u2014none of that nervous ping-ponging between the lines. It feels less like assistance and more like a proper, law-abiding driver. Later this year, even these first cars are promised point-to-point navigation: punch in an address, lift your hands, and the R2 takes you there\u2014eyes up, but mostly along for the ride.<\/p>\n
All of which raises a question the R2 keeps almost asking: How much of the driving do you actually want to do? On a long, straight highway, the answer is easy\u2014less. OK Computer indeed.<\/p>\n
RELATED: The Best Mountain Towns for EVs in the U.S.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nA voice assistant\u2014Rivian Assistant\u2014arrives this year to run the cabin: climate, navigation, the things you\u2019d otherwise reach across a screen for. Useful. But I floated a wilder version to them: a digital spotter for the gnarly stuff. A voice on the technical lines\u2014slow here, line up left, you\u2019ve got it<\/em>\u2014half coach, half co-pilot. They were \u2026 polite about it. On the trail, I ended up talking myself out of my own pitch. The commute can have the computer. But the trail is one of the last places left where it\u2019s just you and a guy hanging out the window telling you to choose the line directly over that boulder.<\/p>\nThe larger statement Rivian is making with the R2 is about choice. The conventional wisdom says Americans have cooled on EVs. CEO RJ Scaringe doesn\u2019t buy it. \u201cI think we have an extreme lack of choice around highly compelling products,\u201d he told us\u2014the market isn\u2019t tired of electric cars, it\u2019s tired of mediocre ones. The R2 is the bet that the desire was always there, waiting for something worth wanting.<\/p>\n
The first trim level out the door, the Performance with the Launch Package, runs $57,990 and buys a rocket of a box: 656 horsepower, 4,400 pounds of tow, lifetime hands-free driving baked in, and 0 to 60 mph in 3.6 seconds, which undercuts a base Porsche 911 Carrera. Now, every quick EV embarrasses a sports car off the line and then loses politely the moment a corner shows up. But there\u2019s something deranged about a family hauler with a frunk and a tow hitch out-launching a 911. The Standard ($48,490, early 2027) drops to a single rear motor and 350 horses, but it\u2019s the range champ\u2014up to 345 miles, by Rivian\u2019s reckoning. All of them clear 9.6 inches of ground and swallow 90-odd cubic feet of gear, with a cabin long enough for two adults to sleep. (Just add a car mattress.)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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\n\n\nSTANDARD<\/span><\/td>\n PREMIUM<\/span><\/td>\n PERFORMANCE<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n\n\n$48,490<\/span><\/td>\n $53,990<\/span><\/td>\n $57,990<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n350 hp<\/span><\/td>\n 450 hp<\/span><\/td>\n 656 hp<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n0\u201360 in 5.9 seconds<\/span><\/td>\n 0\u201360 in 4.6 seconds<\/span><\/td>\n 0\u201360 in 3.6 seconds<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nRange up to 345 miles<\/span><\/td>\n Range up to 330 miles<\/span><\/td>\n Range up to 330 miles<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nAvailable early 2027<\/span><\/td>\n Available late 2026<\/span><\/td>\n Available now<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nStill, the spec sheet was never the point. Back in the canyon, we were splashing through a creek, climbing into a corridor of aspen and fir so green and improbable our guide nicknamed it Narnia. On the descents the regen did the work. No hill-descent-control theater. No hunting for a low gear. You lift, the motors hold, the cameras show you the rocks under your wheels. It makes pointing two tons downhill downright relaxing.<\/p>\n
At one point I dropped all five windows at once\u2014there\u2019s a single physical button for it, the kind of small mechanical grace the whole car is built on\u2014and let the canyon air in, dust and sage.<\/p>\n
Buy it for the range. Buy it for the morning it drives you to work and you can daydream about your next adventure. Buy it because it\u2019s one of the best cars on the road, EV or not. But then take it where the map goes pale. Past the last bar of signal, to the spot where the only voice left is the one telling you: go faster.<\/p>\n
This article is from the Fall 2026 issue of Outside magazine. To receive the print magazine, become an Outside+ member here<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/div>\nSource link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published September 3, 2026 09:18AM \u201cYou can go faster,\u201d the Rivian engineer said. We had just dropped off the pavement into Wasatch Mountain State Park in Utah, and my instinct was the opposite. When it comes to off-roading, I was always taught the \u201cslow is smooth, smooth is fast\u201d mantra\u2014out of respect for the trail,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wild-living"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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