Rivian recalls about 14 R2 electric SUVs over under-torqued battery fasteners

Rivian has recalled a small batch of its new R2 electric SUVs over a high-voltage battery problem. According to TechCrunch, fasteners that secure the battery pack may have left the factory without sufficient torque, a fault that could cut power to the vehicle while it is being driven. The company estimates that only about 14 vehicles are affected and says it will repair or replace damaged parts on customer cars as needed.

How the defect was found

In a recall filing, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) states that Rivian first noticed the problem on September 17. A manufacturing worker at the company's plant in Normal, Illinois spotted a battery pack fastener that had been tightened below specification by an automated station on the assembly line. Rivian investigated and then reconfigured that station so it rejects any fastener that is not torqued correctly, closing off the source of the fault.

Rivian told the regulator it knows of no customer complaints, crashes, injuries or deaths connected to the issue. Even so, word of the problem had already begun circulating before the formal recall: TechCrunch notes that Reddit users and RivianTrackr, an independent blog that tracks the automaker closely, flagged the issue in late September. One owner wrote that Rivian's service team advised them to stop driving the vehicle right away, and the company had it towed.

The second R2 recall in as many months

The R2 only began reaching customers this year, and this is already its second recall. The first, issued the previous month, concerned backup camera visibility and was resolved with an over-the-air software update. The battery issue is different in kind: it involves physical hardware built on the assembly line and requires service work rather than a patch.

The distinction matters for Rivian because the R2 is the company's first vehicle aimed at the mass market, and the product it is counting on to carry the business to its first profit. Early manufacturing stumbles draw outsized attention when a company is ramping up a flagship model.

A fast ramp under pressure

Rivian has set itself an aggressive target for the R2's launch year. According to TechCrunch, the company plans to ship between 20,000 and 25,000 units by the end of December. With deliveries having started in June, that would represent one of the quickest ramp-ups of a new EV in the US market if Rivian pulls it off. To reach those numbers, the company is preparing to add a second production shift at the plant, and it says early demand for the lower-priced SUV is strong.

That pace puts a premium on catching defects inside the factory rather than in customers' driveways. In this case the problem was caught internally and the affected population is tiny, but high-voltage systems leave little margin for error.

Why it matters

The episode underlines that EV quality problems come in two very different forms: software faults, which can be fixed remotely, and high-voltage hardware faults, which cannot. Rivian's first R2 recall took the software route; this one requires physical inspection and repair, though only on roughly 14 vehicles with no reported injuries. For a company racing to scale a mass-market model while pursuing its first profitable period, the direct cost of this defect is low but the scrutiny is high. The root cause was an automated assembly station that failed to apply the correct torque, and automation is central to hitting Rivian's volume targets. How reliably the company keeps such faults out of a fast-moving line may matter just as much as the R2's price or range in determining whether the launch succeeds.