Enlarge / From left to right, the Rivian R2, Rivian R3, and Rivian R3X. (credit: Rivian)

Today in California, Rivian CEO and founder RJ Scaringe unveiled new additions to the electric vehicle startup's model lineup. Details of the new R2 had leaked earlier this week , although not entirely accurately—the new smaller EV will start at $45,000 (not $47,000) when it goes on sale in 2026.

At first glance of the R2, you might be excused for thinking you're looking at a Rivian R1S , for both SUVs share a lot of styling details—not just Rivian's distinctive daylight running lights but also the overall shape of the vehicle. But the new car is shorter in both length (by 15.7 inches/400 mm) and height, and only offers two rows of seating, not three.

Convenience improvements include a pair of gloveboxes under the dashboard and a flashlight that's stored in the door. At the back, the glass rear window can drop down to allow access to the cargo area. Both rows of seats fold flat, in case you want to camp in your car.

Enlarge / EVs are making in-roads at the annual King of the Hammers event in California. (credit: Michael Teo Van Runkle)

Electric vehicles are few and far between in the desert at King of the Hammers, a weeks-long off-roading event that often looks more like Burning Man than motorsport. Almost all EVs can be found at the Optima Oasis, a not-so-literal oasis of solar and hydrogen-powered chargers that the battery company erected smack-dab in the middle of nowhere for the past two years.

King of the Hammers takes place in Johnson Valley Off-Highway Vehicle Area, the nation's largest OHV space by sheer acreage. But the vast expanse, about 100 miles as the crow flies from downtown Los Angeles, turns into a thriving metropolis once a year when a makeshift city dubbed "Hammertown" draws tens of thousands of four-wheeling enthusiasts to the sand and rocks.

I went to check out the festivities—especially the event's EV-focused Unplugged rally.

Enlarge / Note: This is not what the actual software update looks like when it fails; in reality, it just causes the screens to go black. (credit: Aurich Lawson | Rivian)

The more innovation-minded people in the auto industry have heralded the advent of the software-defined car . It's been spun as a big benefit for consumers, too—witness the excitement among Tesla owners when that company adds a new video game or childish noise to see why the rest of the industry joined the hype train. But sometimes there are downsides, as some Rivian owners are finding out this week.

The EV startup, which makes well-regarded pickup trucks and SUVs, as well as delivery vans for Amazon, pushed out a new over-the-air software update on Monday. But all is not well with 2023.42; the update stalls before it completes installing, taking out both infotainment and main instrument display screens.

Rivian VP of software engineering Wassym Bensaid explained the problem in a post on Rivian's subreddit :

Enlarge / The R1T handled this boulder-strewn hill with aplomb. (credit: Ian Ward/Rivian)

NORMAL, Ill.—It was a blazing hot August day in central Illinois, but you wouldn't know it once inside Rivian's 4 million-square-foot manufacturing facility. The electric vehicle manufacturer was hosting media members not only to demonstrate how far Rivian has come since buying a former Mitsubishi plant in 2017 but also to launch its new, range-increasing Enduro drive unit that's now available across its entire EV lineup.

As a startup in a crowded and established industry, Rivian has pursued a strategy of vertical integration to keep its costs down. It can be done all in-house, and that's what Rivian has done with its new motor.

Journalists tour Rivan's 4,000,000-square-foot factory in Normal, Illinois. (credit: Ian Ward/Rivian)

The new dual-motor system is part of Rivian's new Enduro drive unit. Enduro is a fully integrated platform, and all its components—gearbox, inverter, and motor—were designed in-house. Rivian has been using Enduro in its single-motor commercial electric vans (the factory floor was dense with electric Amazon delivery vans in various states of assembly, with many more outside awaiting delivery), and it is now building R1T pickup trucks and R1S SUVs with the Enduro platform.

Enlarge / Amazon had Rivian design and build it a custom electric delivery van, which started production in 2021. (credit: Amazon)

Depending on where you live, your Amazon order may have been delivered by one of the company's striking-looking Rivian electric delivery vans. Made by the same company that builds highly capable electric trucks and SUVs for the affluent tech crowd, Rivian has now built more than 5,000 delivery vans for the online retailing giant. The vans have delivered more than 150 million packages to date.

Amazon and Rivian made news together in 2019 when the former led a $700 million investment round into the EV startup. A few months later, Amazon announced an order of 100,000 electric vans from Rivian . At the time, Amazon's then-CEO Jeff Bezos said all 100,000 vehicles would be deployed by 2024—a timeline that even pre-pandemic appeared extremely optimistic; the official press release gave a more circumspect 2030 deadline. The vans began delivering packages in 2021 .

No, I don't think it has Apple CarPlay. (credit: Amazon)

Like the BrightDrop Zevo 600 , the Rivian van is a clean-sheet design, optimized specifically for Amazon's logistics workflow. It's equipped with a full suite of advanced driver assistance systems, and the cab design minimizes blind spots. It even has a charming appearance, much like Rivian's R1 series, thanks to friendly round daytime running lights.

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Rivian | Getty Images)

The Combined Charging System standard 's days in North America may well be numbered. That's the spec that the auto industry arrived at for electric vehicles to fast charge using DC, which combines the five-pin J1772 plug (for AC charging) with two pins for direct current. But the connector and its cable are big and unwieldy, unlike the more elegant alternative created by Tesla (called the North American Charging Standard), which has had its own walled garden of charging infrastructure for over a decade.

Until now, that is, because Tesla is letting other automakers over that wall. First it was Ford . Then General Motors joined in . And today Rivian revealed that it, too, is switching from CCS to NACS, Tesla's competing standard, in 2024. Unlike the two automakers that preceded it, Rivian did not have to join Tesla CEO Elon Musk in a Twitter Space to announce the news.

"We’re excited to work with Tesla and to see collaborations like this help advance the world toward carbon neutrality. The adoption of the North American Charging Standard will enable our existing and future customers to leverage Tesla’s expansive Supercharger network while we continue to build out our Rivian Adventure Network. We look forward to continuing to find new ways to accelerate EV adoption," said Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe in a statement.