Rivian began delivering the R2 SUV last week, but the lease prices that accompanied the launch have disappointed many of the reservation holders who had been eagerly awaiting the vehicle. Lease costs start around $829 and can exceed $1,000, according to Rivian’s website. The pricing marks a sharp contrast with the roughly $45,000 starting purchase price Rivian announced two years ago, which generated significant buzz and a wave of reservations.
Kevin King, a Nashville resident who had been following Rivian’s electric vehicles for years, said he had hoped the R2 would be his entry point into the brand. He put down a deposit and waited, but when he saw lease prices over $800, he decided not to take delivery. “I was holding out hope that it would be possible for me to get an R2 this year,” King said. “When I saw that price, I couldn’t justify it.”
Rivian later announced that the R2 would debut with a well-appointed version around $58,000, with less-expensive variants to follow. Some reservation holders said on social media and Reddit that the current lease costs are close to those of Rivian’s higher-end R1S and R1T models, which can surpass $90,000 or even $100,000 with options. Many said they would instead wait for the promised $45,000 version, expected next year. A $54,000 variant is set to go on sale later this year; lease prices for both remain undisclosed.
“For a company like Rivian that is banking on the success of the R2 to continue the road map of launching more cars and expanding the brand, not having a favorable lease program could be detrimental,” said Joseph Yoon, a consumer-insights analyst at the car-buying website Edmunds. Yoon said he had been considering an R2 as his next car until he saw the lease price.
Rivian Vice President of Sales Gary Gaines said the R2 requires a lower down payment for leasing than the more expensive R1S: $3,500 versus $6,500. A few days into the launch, half of R2 customers had opted to lease, about what the company projected, he said. “R2’s a new product, and there’s a significant amount of demand,” Gaines said.
The R2 is Rivian’s most important vehicle to date. The automaker posted $5.4 billion in revenue last year with sales of about 42,000 vehicles but has never turned an annual profit. The R2 is designed to be more profitable: it is nearly 2,000 pounds lighter than the R1S and built with fewer parts to reduce manufacturing costs. Rivian’s stock price has risen about 2% this month in anticipation of the R2’s release and jumped 6% since the vehicle went on sale last Tuesday.
The lease-price challenges reflect a broader industry difficulty: making a truly affordable electric car that is also profitable in the U.S. The Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act applied a $7,500 federal tax credit to nearly any leased EV, driving a surge in cheap leases — some under $200 a month. But the Trump administration ended that credit last year and lowered fuel-economy rules, reducing automakers’ motivation to develop and subsidize electric models. About 45% of EVs purchased this year were leased, down from about 69% in 2025 before the tax credit expired, according to Edmunds data.
Rivian is moving ahead with its EV plans, including a second factory in Georgia expected to open in 2028. The R2 currently on sale can drive 330 miles on a single charge and accelerate from zero to 60 mph in about 3.6 seconds, performance typical of much more expensive cars. Motor Trend said Rivian “has delivered another vehicle that’s difficult to fault.”
Not all early buyers were deterred. Brian Reese, chief executive of EV Sportline, an aftermarket auto-parts company, reserved his R2 within seconds of its online listing in March 2024. After a test drive two months ago, he said the SUV offered more value than he expected for a mid-market electric vehicle. “My first response was, ‘Wow, this, this is actually more value than I expected for their middle-class SUV,’ ” Reese said. “I was kind of expecting that it was gonna be a lower-grade interior, but it’s really not. It’s super nice.”