The Rivian R2 will be available for purchase later this month, a couple of years since it was first announced. It's now been five years since the R1 first went into production, and boy does time fly, huh? The Rivian R1T pickup truck was the first to go out to customers, in late 2021, while the Rivian R1S SUV would follow in mid-2022.Now that some time has passed, it's worth taking a look at the market and seeing how these EVs have come along. Four years may not be that long in the grand scheme of things, but, with all the ups and downs we've seen in the electric segment in that time, it may as well be decades. A Rivian R1S Holds Its Value Better In The Short Term Rivian The initial release of the Rivian R1S and the R1T were separated by several months, but they both launched for the 2022 model year. Checking the trending prices for every model year since then, and comparing it to the base MSRP, here's what we get (with percentages rounded to the nearest whole number)At a glance, the Rivian R1S seems to retain its value better than the R1T after four years, and the market strongly favors the SUV at two years in.But, check any individual model year, and you might get a different story. A one-year-old Rivian R1S is still worth 89% of its MSRP after 12 months on the road, but the pickup has actually appreciated in value, based on our market data.Note that these numbers are based on up-to-the-minute sale prices. Trending prices could be a few dollars up or down by the time you read this, but should be within the same ballpark.According to a five-year projection from iSeeCars, the pickup is actually expected to hold its value better after half a decade on the road, but both are expected to see major drop-off.iSeeCars'forecast tracks with typical depreciation rates across the pickup and SUV segments. SUVs are a saturated market, where pickup buyers generally have fewer options, and trucks command strong nameplate loyalty. Used R1Ts Are Cheaper Than Their SUV Counterparts Rivian If we're looking to cherry-pick some affordable SUVs and pickups without too many miles on the odometer, we can find the following R1 SUVs on our own marketplace. A 3,958-mile 2025 Rivian R1S Adventure Dual Motor is selling for $58,441 in Utah. This was the cheapest model we could find. A 52,154-mile 2023 R1S Adventure Dual Motor is selling for $60,239 in Minnesota. A 43,882-mile 2022 R1S Launch Edition is selling for $61,352 in Illinois. A 19,852-mile 2024 R1S Adventure is selling for $63,998 in Florida. A 37,150-mile 2023 R1S Adventure Quad Motor is selling for $63,887 in Pennsylvania. As for the pickup, we can find the following R1Ts for sale. A 76,257-mile 2022 R1T Adventure is selling for $44,800 in Ohio. A 37,612-mile 2022 R1T Launch Edition is selling for $50,690 in Oregon. A 42,594-mile 2022 R1T Adventure is selling for $51,164 in Florida. A 2,643-mile 2022 R1T Adventure is selling for $68,797 in Washington. A 19,155-mile R1T Adventure Dual Motor is selling for $59,900 in Utah. You'll want to run a search of your own, as these listings are only provided to give an example of what's out there.Based on these numbers alone, it's hard to find an R1S under $60,000 at any mileage, while the R1T has plenty of listings for sale under that price point. Rivians Tend To Hold Up Well Over Time Rivian Price of purchase is almost never the most important cost to consider when buying a used SUV or pickup. There are hunks of metal out there selling for a few hundred dollars, but restoring them to working order would require more than you might pay for a brand-new car. So we want to consider the actual cost of ownership in an R1S and an R1T before deciding that one is a smarter buy than the other.This might be tricky, because, in many ways, they're the exact same vehicle. But, according to maintenance data from Recharged, insurance estimates from TheZebra, and FuelEconomy.gov, there are some differences between the two.FuelEconomy.gov assumes that you'll be driving around 15,000 miles a year, split 45/55 between highway and city driving. The R1T is actually estimated to be marginally more efficient, costing an average of $1.80 per 25 miles, to $1.82 for the R1S, but the difference is so minor as to generate the same one-year recharge cost estimate according to the EPA.Maintenance data is difficult to dig up for Rivians. You won't find any information on the usual platforms like RepairPal and CarEdge, and CarComplaints has zero reports on file for any model year for either model. All of that being said, both models are not without their NHTSA recalls and complaints.Battery degradation may be a concern, but it's a small one. According to Recharged, you may have a 3% loss in power after three years of ownership, but the process slows from there. You'll likely be ready to sell a used Rivian for scrap before its battery dies. The 2024 R1S And R1T Share All Of Their Recalls Rivian The 2024 R1S and R1T both have six recalls on file, all for the same issues, as follows.May 9, 2024: 127 Rivians, all 2024 models, were recalled for missing dashboard airbag warning labels. May 23, 2024: 2,334 Rivians, dated 2023-2024, were recalled for improperly aimed headlights. June 5, 2024: 1,723 Rivians, dated 2022-2024, were recalled for side curtain airbags failing to deploy, being blocked by clips on B and C pillar trim panels. June 3, 2025: 536 Rivians, dated 2022-2025, were recalled for improperly installed D-ring bolts in the front seat belt anchorage assemblies. January 5, 2026: 19,641 Rivians, dated 2022-2025, were recalled for improperly reassembled toe links, stemming from an earlier service bulletin repair. This is, by far, the 2024 model's biggest recall. January 15, 2026: 869 Rivians, dated 2022-2026, were recalled for improperly tightened bolts in the seat belt retractor assemblies. Complaints for both vehicles are scarce. Only seven complaints have been registered for the pickup, and 15 for the SUV. The most worrying include a pickup driver reporting steering wheel shake above 20 mph, and an SUV owner reporting sudden swerving and loss of steering control. These may both be tied to service bulletins pertaining to suspension, but we can't be certain of that with such limited available information on such incidents.In any event, Rivian's bumper-to-bumper warranty covers you for four years or 50,000 miles. If you buy a 2024 model with low miles, not only are you purchasing a remarkably dependable EV, but anything that does go wrong won't be coming out of your pocket.All of this being said, the truck's unibody design poses some issues of its own. But mechanical problems are few and far between. This Might Be The Worst Time To Buy A Rivian R1 Rivian Brand-new, a Rivian R1 could easily have you spending in the low six figures. A few years old, depreciation has taken some of the sting off the sticker price, making a once prohibitively expensive EV more affordable, while still under warranty. Even so, we can't exactly recommend buying a used Rivian R1 at the moment, be it pickup or SUV, unless you can get a really, really good deal on the EV.The Rivian R2 is said to cost the company around half as much to produce as did the R1, and the company is passing those savings on to the customer, with MSRPs announced to start as low as $45,000 for a Standard RWD model, with fully loaded models costing around $70,000 (depending on your idea of fully loaded).Our advice would be to wait it out. The Rivian R2 will be hitting the market for considerably less than the cheapest R1s we've been able to find, and, even if you prefer the older model, this could encourage sellers to cut the prices of R1s. You may be losing a bit of warranty coverage, waiting to make the purchase, but you could be saving tens of thousands of dollars on the cost of purchase.