Rivian R2s built from around VIN 10,000 onward are shipping with front seat ventilation in the bottom cushion only, with the backrest fan removed from both the driver and passenger seats. Earlier R2s, including mine, have two fans per seat, one in the cushion and one in the backrest.
Owners started flagging the change on Rivian Forums, where the thread starter shared a Reddit comment from someone claiming to be a Rivian technician. According to that comment, the cutoff lands somewhere between VIN 9,800 and 10,000, the fan connector is still in the seat, and Rivian won’t retrofit the backrest fan on newer vehicles.
I reached out to Rivian directly and haven’t heard back, but I did speak with a confirmed R2 technician who told me the change is true. No reason was given, and if I had to guess, I’d say it comes down to cost reduction.
This one stings a bit for me. Ventilated seats have been one of my favorite R2 features since my first drive in Park City earlier this year, and when I picked up my R2 in Normal I used them every chance I got, especially with how much of the cooling you feel through your back.
Rivian is swapping my current R2 and I’m getting into another one, which means my next VIN will almost certainly land well past 10,000 and come with cushion-only ventilation. As a Florida man, I’ll miss this the most and I’m quite upset about it.
So if you’re taking delivery of a newer R2 and the ventilation doesn’t feel as strong as it did on your demo drive, your seat is most likely working exactly as built. Heated seats use their own heating elements throughout the seat, separate from these fans.
I’ll update this post as soon as Rivian gets back to me.
That is going to certainly put a sour taste in many people. That’s a basic feature on vehicles half that price.
Jose, do you think Rivian will get back with you and confirm this? That sucks, I know a great deal of people have complained about the noise, but no one complained about the performance. I thought they were the best cooled seats since I first experienced cooled seats in a rented Cadilliac in the mid 00s.
I hope they get back to me with any information.
This is a bs scammy move that they are going to deal with a lot of blow back on (no pun intended). And it will be deserved. They need to remedy this by offering to add the fans as a retrofit for those who want them.
We pick up our R2 tomorrow with a 9100 range vin. So if its 9800-10k we should have both then. I guess we will find out tomorrow.
Let me know and congrats!
You don’t think it could be a response to the complaints about how loud they were?
They’re not installing the seatback fans because, according to a SC tech I just spoke with, the fan can hit the plastic cover on the rear of the seatback when the occupant pushes back into the seat, causing an annoying popping sound. It sounds like there’s basically not enough room in the seatback for the fan as-designed.
I learned this after taking my R2 in for this popping sound. They were able to improve it a bit, but gave me the option of leaving it as is, or having the fan removed.
Thanks for sharing this, quite the interesting situation they have created here.
I always felt like the seat fans were freakishly loud, so if I get vented seats but they aren’t as loud that might be a win. Even if its at the cost of less of the seat being ventilated. But kind of sketchy to make that change and not mention it anywhere.
The loudness never bothered me because my bum and back were nice and cold 🙂
Incredibly disappointed if this is true – there should have been an announcement or indicator that the product you’re purchasing has substantially changed.
Wildly poor and deceptive decision from Rivian leadership.
Just got off the phone with Rivian sales and they confirmed that new deliveries of the R2 will not have seatback fans. No explanation was provided, and I was told there are no plans to address the issue at this time.
Exactly.
I also thought about how the ventilation will be quieter now, which many people complained about. Careful what you wish for!
I’m going on week 5 of waiting for a VIN but I will be rejecting any delivery until Rivian remediates the issue. Very disappointed coming from a Gen 1 R1T owner.
Mine is 10,0XX and I have both fans in my seats
Lower seat cushion and backrest?
Yes setback & bottom, hopefully they don’t turn off the backrest fan in a software update!
Nuts. I loved it on my test drive. That was the one thing I was looking forward to, and it would be my first car with that feature. I’m picking it up next week. I’m in the mid 12k vin series.
I am disappointed in this change and the fact they have no resolution…just accept it, too bad. Hope Rivian is not getting arrogant and treating customer poorly already. So many things can derail a company and customer service is one of those.
If there is a popping issue when the user leans back, I don’t know how they could fix that without a redesign. It might even be a safety or at least a reliability issue. That sounds more likely than a cost cutting issue.
Yeah, I don’t see an easy fix for that without redesigning the seat.