on X that the automaker had taken more than 68,000 reservations for the SUV in less than 24 hours. Amid alarminglydemand for electric vehicles, perhaps there’s a latent interest in innovative EV companies when they aren’t helmed by a conflict magnet with a fixation on
Rivian’s 68,000 reservations hold up well against its most high-profile competitors. It took Ford about three weeks to get 100,000 pre-orders for the F-150 Lightning. Tesla’s Cybertruck got 250,000 reservations in less than a week. To be fair, reserving a Rivian R2 onlya $100 deposit the same as the Cybertruck and F-150 Lightning.
You could argue that — like with Tesla and Ford — Rivian chose the low deposit to build hype, knowing full well that many pre-order customers won’t follow through. But it also helps thatdid everything the company needed. The R2 looks “quite fetching,” as Engadget’s Lawrence Bonk pointed out. On the inside, it has sleek and subtle details like two glove boxes, fold-down rear and front seats, a slide-out cargo floor and dual scroll wheels with dynamic haptic feedback on the steering wheel.
Perhaps Rivian’s impressive showing reveals at least some Americans have an appetite for an EV maker that’s neither a traditional auto company nor one helmed by someone who, at times, seems more interested inthan a responsible adult serving as the public face of an industry the world desperately needs to grow up — and get people excited about driving electric vehicles — as climate change begins to