Rivian Recap: 01/16/2026

Let's dive in!

Software

Last week, I shipped a new Rivian specific lease calculator and the response has been incredible. Around 4,000 lease deals have been analyzed so far! 🤘

Another area I wanted to try and expand on was a clear visualization of range across configurations, as well as how environmental factors impact range.

These tools have been a really fun challenge to put together so far, and I have a few more in the pipeline I hope you can enjoy.

Check out the range calculator and let me know what you think!

Note: Whenever possible, I'm creating these tools in a way that allows other owners to pass in their own referrals with ?ref=YOURCODE123

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Friend of the channel, Rivian Roamer (aka Chad Moran) has been on a tear updating his tracking app.

I noticed this battery level over time, which is a wonderful to see how much your vehicle may be quietly draining at idle, or a specific driving session.

Given the cost to store this kind of precise and steaming data from the vehicle, it's limited to Plus subscribers, but you can try a month for free.

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While the regressions in lane centering behavior in 2025.46 are still quite problematic, I have to say I've been enjoying the availability in way more locations.

I've also come to really appreciate co-steer.

From knowing areas of regression, such as the massively problematic nearby on/off ramps that the vehicle tries to take or center towards.

Or to just make comfort adjustments avoiding potholes, or shading away from vehicles nearby. I may be hallucinating, but it seems like the latest build at least does a better job of not drifting towards other lanes with trucks.

I'll be truly excited when we have clear behavior of lane shade behavior away from adjacent vehicles, trailers, etc.

We have a long way to go until Level 3 or beyond, and based on comments from James Philbin on the Motortrend podcast, eyes off anything is going to be gated to LiDAR equipped vehicles, which matches my expectations.

All of this effort over the next 12 months should get us far closer to that reality though. Rivian has made a ton of progress over the last year, so I'm bullish on what another 12-18 months can bring.

Note: If you're curious about the differences in what each "level" means from a standards body perspective, RivianTrackr has a nice writeup here.

Hardware

The major news of the week is that the Manufacturing Validation Builds (MVB's) for R2 have rolled off the line!

What we've been seeing rolling around so far have been early stage, essentially hand built DVBs.

The general progress goes like this:

Design Validation Build ✅
Manufacturing Validation Build ✅ (this week)
Sellable Build 🔜
Customer Deliveries ⏳

We are likely weeks away from the sellable builds starting to roll off the line, and we seem to be tracking for a March-ish "customer" deliveries.

I put customers in quotes, because the first customers are likely to still be Rivian employees or those close to the company for the initial batch.

Exciting times!

Btw... is it just me, or does it seem like the Rivian employees got the message to "Stay Curious ✌️"? 😅

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A Rivian cargo van with windows?!

Could Rivian be testing an actual camper van model/conversion for the cargo van that would have car campers doing backflips?

If this does come to pass, I hope we see two key additions:

🔋A larger capacity batter vs the LFP standard pack we have now

🛞 AWD, since the current RCV/EDV's are 2WD only.

Get those two things in place for an even remotely reasonable price, and I think you'd have something pretty exciting.

It does seem like the delivery van business outside of Amazon has struggled.

Just look at GM completely canceling the Brightdrop line as proof that the electric delivery segment is tough sledding. Which is really too bad because total cost of ownership is probably pretty solid.

Community

Two quick ones this week from the community.

First, the legend of "Sad Mike" continues to grow, with a community member sending one of the 3D prints from my photo in Joshua Tree to set out on an adventure of their own.

A fun idea, hopefully we see photos of him making his way across the country and a shared experience for the community.

Second, there is a fun 3D print of  "rocky stand" for the die cast model of the R1T, and it looks awesome.

Here's the link to the 3D file (they are big though!).

Worth Checking Out - VION

While VION makes some of the best sunshades for the R1S and R1T, I wanted to take a moment to call out their activated carbon air filters.

Since I recently scheduled a 7,500 mile service as per the service manual, I was reminded that this is the regular interval suggested for replacing the air filter.

While yes, you can add-on an air filter directly from Rivian, you may want to save yourself some money and swap out with a high quality filter from VION.

My thanks to VION for helping make this newsletter possible.

Latest Deals

The incentives this week are still heavily in favor or purchasing, but Rivian has added a new offer to lease OR purchase.

Take an extra $1,000 off any new R1 by January 19th to quality.

Get 0% financing for 60 months on the following builds (+ must have options):

Dual Large w/Performance:

2026 R1S Dual-Large w/Performance (Premium Audio)

2026 R1T Dual-Large w/Performance (Premium Audio, Utility)

Dual Max w/Performance:

2026 R1S Dual-Max w/Performance (Premium Audio)

2026 R1T Dual-Max w/Performance (Premium Audio, Utility)

Tri-Max:

2026 R1S tri-motor

2026 R1T tri-motor

All referrals also get 3 months of free charging on the Rivian Adventure Network, which would be handy with holiday travel.

I hope enjoyed this weeks edition of the Rivian Recap. Let me know what you'd like to see more of in future editions!

Even if you just want to say hi, hit reply – I'd love to get to know you 👋

Stay curious ✌️,

Travis Ketchum

P.S. Thinking about buying a new Rivian?

Make sure you use a referral code. A friend, a neighbor, or someone who has helped you along the way.

Here's mine: TRAVIS4699411