Rally-inspired Rivian R3X hot hatch may signal brand's high performance future

The Rivian R3X hot hatch could be the first in a series of rally-inspired performance models from the electric car start-up, which is seemingly taking a leaf out of Ford’s book.

Earlier this year, the Rivian Adventure Department, otherwise known as RAD – the brand’s equivalent to Mercedes-AMG or BMW M – was established, founded on the idea that “the further we push our vehicles, the more fun we can have”. But it wasn’t clear what the team would be doing. 

In an exclusive interview with Auto Express, Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe revealed more about the plans for the skunkworks team – starting with the fact that the R3X hot hatch, which was previewed in 2024 with a potent tri-motor powertrain, will be the sort of machine RAD is going to deliver. 

“The best embodiment of RAD, or the best example of the types of products RAD will do, is R3X,” Scaringe told us, with the boxy, Lancia Delta Intergrale-esque hot hatch apparently being the catalyst for the formation of the performance division. “Had we figured out that we were going to create RAD before that, we would have just called that car the RAD R3X.”

Scaringe is very excited about the “huge opportunities to do cool stuff with RAD” that he sees, especially with the open brief the team seems to have. “The cool thing about it being the ‘Rivian Adventure Department’ is we can take that in a lot of directions for each vehicle.”

He explained: “The R3X is clearly like taking a more off-road rally perspective on performance. But you could take adventure into a different direction with that form factor really, in a really interesting way.”

There’s also potential for a RAD version of the Rivian R2 – the brand’s Tesla Model Y rival that was designed for Europe and is coming here in the next few years. “You could imagine that being something that's more off-road-centric,” said Scaringe, before quickly adding, “You could imagine that being something that's more on-road centric.” We’ll have to wait and see which it turns out to be. 

What does Ewan McGregor have to do with this?

The idea for the RAD began to form when Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman took the very first prototypes of Rivian’s R1T electric pick-up truck on a 13,000-mile adventure through South and Central America in their film ‘Long Way Up’. 

“It's sort of funny how some things stick out in your brain, and you remember them like it was yesterday,” Scaringe said. “I was sitting in the conference room, and I remember exactly where I was sitting, with a few people around the table, including Brian Gase [now Rivian’s VP of engineering quality].

“And we're on this call where they're describing this journey, and they say, ‘So do you guys want to do it?’ And I'm like, yeah, we'll do it. We're in! And the team was like, ‘Oh shit. How are we going to do this?’ and I said we'll figure it out.”

After that in 2023, Rivian entered the Rebelle Rally, the longest off-road rally in the US, with its R1T pick-up becoming the first EV to win it. That same year, Rivian set the production electric truck record at the Pikes Peak hill climb with the R1T, then beat its own record in 2024 when it completed the gruelling 14,000-foot ascent in less than 11 minutes.

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