Rivian R2 Details I Noticed at Our SGV Club Meetup

I walked right past the Rivian R2s and didn’t even realize it. I spent a good five minutes in the parking lot squinting at the front ends of parked R1s trying to spot an R2, decided the demo cars over at the chargers weren’t it either, and headed for the door. Then it hit me: those were the R2s the whole time. My bad. In my defense, from the front they read a lot like a shrunken R1S.

The San Gabriel Valley Rivian Club held its members meetup at the Rivian space in Pasadena, and I showed up late, as usual. Between the club catching up on events, my first real time poking around inside a Rivian R2, and an extremely lucky raffle run, this turned out to be one of my favorite meetups yet.

Spotting a Rivian R2: Check the Back

Here’s the trick I used in the parking lot, and it works: you don’t identify an R2 from the front, you identify it from the back. The R2 has what I call the F1 racing light, a center high-mounted light up top like the rain light on a Formula 1 car. The R1s don’t have it. Once you know the tell, you can’t unsee it.

Outside, the club turnout was already worth the trip. One R1S rolled in with a spare tire carrier and a Kammok Crosswing awning up top, basically a rolling campsite. Dena’s yellow R1S was parked out front looking as good as ever, next to a stealth matte wrapped R1S. And the mystery of the Teslas parked at a Rivian meetup finally got solved: apparently there’s a Tesla sales center nearby, and they charge their demo cars here. Funny place for it.

If you want the full story of this club and the people in it, I wrote about it in my deep dive on the San Gabriel Valley Rivian community.

Inside the Rivian R2: Roomier Than It Has Any Right to Be

I’d only been inside an R2 once before, back at the Venice block party first look, so while everyone was listening to Jean run through the club’s upcoming events, I snuck off for a proper look before the showroom got busy.

The thing that keeps surprising me about the R2 is the space. Look at where the seats sit and how much legroom the second row has. It does not feel like the smaller Rivian from the back seat. And the numbers back it up: the display board at the Pasadena space lists the R2 at 185.9 inches long against 200.8 for the R1S and 217.1 for the R1T. That’s about 15 inches shorter than the R1S, and yet the second row felt genuinely roomy to me.

A few things I noticed this time around:

• Outlets in the back. There’s a 12-volt outlet and a 120-volt outlet in the cargo area, and the panel lists a max of 1,900 watts. That’s real power for camp setups.
• A privacy shield for the cargo area, and it’s fairly big.
• No powered rear seats. If you’re comparing it to a Model Y Juniper, the R2’s second row folds the old-fashioned way. At least, I couldn’t find any buttons for it.
• Extra panel lines on the rear quarter that the R1s don’t have. I’m assuming that’s for repairability, which would be a smart move if true.

I Won the $650 Off-Road Recovery Kit

Every raffle I enter, I lose. Not this time. I’m extra glad I made it out because I walked away with a couple of really nice water bottles, the sticker pack everyone got, and the big one: the Off-Road Recovery Kit from the Rivian Gear Shop, which sells for $650.

The haul: water bottles, stickers, and the recovery kit duffel

What's inside, from the Gear Shop listing: Factor 55 recovery tools in a Cordura duffel

When they announced it, I was straight up asking the universe for that bag. It’s a set of Factor 55 recovery tools: a 30-foot tow strap, a short strap, soft shackles, a bow shackle, a hitch link and pin, and recovery gloves, all rated for the weight of an R1. I’ve always wanted a proper tow strap for emergencies, especially after watching a real recovery go down on our Death Valley off-road run with Rivian. I can’t wait to dig into that bag properly and figure out how everything works, probably in its own video.

Credit Goes to the Lucky Socks

I have a theory about why I won, and I’m sticking with it: I was wearing my Gear Guard Gary socks. The yellow ones with the little faces. I bought them with the Gear Shop points I earned from you all using my Rivian referral code, so the way I see it, this win belongs to everyone who used it. They’re sold out now, so I’ll be protecting mine accordingly.

If you’re planning to buy a Rivian, you can use my referral code to get charging perks on the Rivian Adventure Network plus Gear Shop points of your own. That’s how the socks happened, and apparently the socks are how the recovery kit happened.

I had to duck out early because we were flying to Florida that same night, but this meetup was a good one. Have you spent any time inside a Rivian R2 yet? Does it feel bigger than the numbers suggest to you too? Let me know in the comments.