u/MudaThumpa

I just demo’d an R2 Performance Launch Edition with 21” wheels at the Rivian Service Center in St Louis. For context, I currently drive a 2021 Model 3 SR+, on which I’ve put over 135,000 miles since buying it new 5 years ago. I like my Model 3, but I bought it before Tesla turned into whatever it is now, so I won’t be buying another one.

The following is a somewhat random collection of thoughts and observations from my test drive today:

- The charge port door does NOT lock, even when the vehicle is locked. There’s a locking mechanism on the door and on the port, but I have no idea if the components needed to activate the mechanism are installed, and the Rivian rep said there’s no known plan to make the charge port door lockable.

- I asked about the R2 steering wheel material, because I’ve seen pictures of R1 steering wheels peeling pretty badly. The Rivian rep told me the R2 used a different material than the Gen 1 R1s, but TBH she didn’t sound very confident.

- I live an hour away from the nearest Rivian SC, and the Rivian rep said their mobile service goes all the way to Columbia, Missouri. That’s about 120 mile range on their mobile service from St Louis, so that would cover me for routine maintenance.

- Of course I “launched” the R2 from a couple stoplights. It certainly felt fast…noticeably faster than my Model 3 (5.3 sec 0-60), but also it didn’t feel like it was going to leave the planet like the R1T Tri (2.9 sec 0-60) I test drove last year. It’ll be interesting to see how it feels once Rivian delivers a true launch mode.

- I frequently road trip with dogs, so the cooling in the back seat is important to me. I turned on the rear vents, and they felt just as cold as my Model 3 rear vents. That being said, my Model 3 has Dog Mode and the R2 still doesn’t. That should be a top priority for the Rivian team, IMO.

- It was very hot and humid and sunny during my demo drive, and the ventilated seats were great. I’ve never had ventilated seats, but I can see how they’d make hot weather driving more comfortable. I’ve seen people say they’re loud, but I didn’t find them to be problematic in that sense.

- I cranked up the stereo a couple times, and it plenty good for me. My Model 3 has a terrible sound system, so my bar is pretty low. But the R2 speakers are definitely superior, and I mostly listen to audiobooks anyway.

- I didn’t like the “buttons” used for the frunk and rear window. They were just too hit-and-miss, and I think I’d avoid using them as much as possible…opting for internal buttons or the Rivian app. I like the intention behind these “buttons,” but I don’t think the decision is going to age well. But maybe it was just operator error, and maybe I’d figure them out with a little practice.

- The regen was nice and strong on the R2—stronger than my Model 3. I love one-pedal driving, so the stronger the regen the better.

- I’m not an FSD user. I have used it in my car, but I’ve always preferred the control I have over Autopilot vs FSD. So I’m comparing Autonomy+ to Autopilot, and A+ was certainly better than Autopilot during my 30 minute drive, because it does lane changes autonomously and without having to disengage and reengage.

- I fiddled around with the haptic wheels a lot, and really liked them. They had good “hand feel,” though I do agree somewhat with some other commenters who’ve noted the left-right clicking can inadvertently cause up-down clicking.

- There’s obviously a learning curve when coming from Tesla’s UI, but it seemed like it’ll be pretty easy to master.

- It was hard to find the sweet spot to get my Pixel phone to start charging on the inductive charging mat. I think that might be solved if I had a MagSafe magnet installed, which I don’t now. Tesla’s tilted phone charging setup is better either way, IMO.

- The voice used for navigation prompts was surprisingly pleasant and natural, versus the robot voice in my Tesla.

- It took about 3 seconds with my hands off the wheel, head tilted down, before I got a textual warning to keep my eyes on the road. Then another 3 seconds (total of 6 seconds) to get an audible warning. With my hand putting some torque on the steering wheel, it took about 15 seconds before the vehicle started to warn me to watch the road.

- I could be wrong, but I didn’t think the turn signals were automatically disengaging after manual lane changes.

- Maybe my hottest take…I would prefer a larger, single center screen to the two screen setup Rivian uses. The reason is because I found it to be a delicate dance between the seat height, the steering wheel height, and the location of the driver’s screen in order to maximize the view of that screen. I felt like I needed to put the steering wheel uncomfortably high so I could see the whole screen, but even then most of the screen is covered if the steering wheel isn’t straight up-and-down. (See photos 2 & 3) It might be counterintuitive, but I really believe it’s easier to see everything on the center screen.

- I’m planning to get the Esker Silver, and the Rivian rep said that would come a little later—she said August.

- The R2’s nav appears to favor Superchargers over Rivian chargers due to the plug type, even though I had gone into the settings and told it to use both CCS and NACS.

- I did a comparison from the same location routing both the R2 and my Model 3 to Lincoln, Nebraska. The R2 had me stopping to charge three times and getting there in 7 hrs 54 mins, while the Model 3 had me stopping to charge four times and getting me there in 8 hrs 53 mins. (See photo 4) Pretty significant time savings in the R2, despite my Model 3 being much more efficient. But it’s worth noting again that I have the shortest range possible in a Model 3, so this is specific to my situation.

My overall impression was that if Rivian sent me an order invite today, I’d accept it and trade in my Model 3 for the R2.