Rivian's R2 Drives Record Sales as Production Test Begins
Rivian delivered 19,248 vehicles in the third quarter of 2026, its highest quarterly sales on record. The company built 19,751 vehicles in the period. The quarter was the first full quarter of sales for the R2 SUV after public customer deliveries began on June 9, 2026 TechCrunch.
Rivian is building the R2 at its factory in Normal, Illinois. The R2 SUV currently starts at just under $60,000. Rivian did not break out how many of its Q3 deliveries were R2s.
Third-quarter deliveries were roughly 45% more than deliveries in the same period last year. Rivian expects to sell between 65,000 and 70,000 total vehicles in 2026, including R1 models and its commercial electric van. Before raising its outlook, the company forecast 2026 deliveries of 62,000 to 67,000 vehicles Reuters. For the R2 specifically, Rivian is targeting 20,000 to 25,000 vehicle sales by the end of 2026. It said it will release full third-quarter financial results on October 29.
In parallel with the sales report, Rivian issued a recall for the R2 after discovering fasteners, the bolts that hold parts together, on its high-voltage battery pack, the large battery that drives the vehicle, might not be properly tightened TechCrunch. Improperly tightened fasteners can cause a loss of power while driving. The action is the second recall Rivian has issued for the R2. The first concerned backup camera visibility and was addressed with a software update.
Rivian first spotted the battery fastener defect on September 17, 2026. A manufacturing operator at Normal noticed a fastener had been under-torqued, tightened with less twisting force than specified, by an automated station. After investigating, Rivian reprogrammed the station to reject improperly torqued fasteners. Rivian says only around 14 vehicles may be affected. It told NHTSA it is not aware of any customer reports, accidents, injuries, or fatalities related to the issue. Rivian will repair or replace damaged components on affected customer vehicles as needed.
The broader context here is the shift from low-volume launch to volume production. A 19,000-unit quarter with a new platform, a new battery assembly sequence, and a higher mix of automated fastening puts much tighter demands on process control, keeping each build step within set limits, and traceability, tracking which vehicles received which work, than early production. Torque, or tightening force, is a direct safety variable on a high-voltage pack, and containment to about 14 vehicles suggests line-side detection worked quickly once the operator flagged the under-torque condition.
In my view, the pairing of news matters more than either item alone. A record quarter answers the demand question for R2, at least for its first full quarter. A hardware recall affecting a handful of vehicles, caught internally within weeks of launch and fixed with a station logic change plus physical inspection, points to where execution risk now sits. It is not in software patching, which Rivian already used for the camera issue, but in holding mechanical variance inside tolerance as throughput rises.
What to watch next is straightforward for engineers and operators tracking the ramp. Build-to-delivery delta was narrow in Q3, which indicates vehicles are moving to customers rather than accumulating. The raised full-year guide and the 20,000 to 25,000 R2 target imply a Q4 that must sustain or improve on Q3 throughput from Normal. If Rivian can hold fastener control, inspection escape rates, and service turnaround at that volume, the R2 moves from successful launch to repeatable production. That transition, more than any single quarter, is what determines long-term cost, quality, and customer trust.
