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Families, luxury SUV buyers, and everyone with an Internet connection and a keyboard, Rivian has heard your pleas and answered: The R1S is getting second-row captain’s chairs.
On Thursday, the 2027 Rivian R1T and R1S debuted with a reconfigured trim lineup, new color option, and yes, second-row captain’s chairs for the R1S. Both are now on sale with prices holding steady. The R1T starts at $81,885 and the R1S starts at $85,885 including an $1,895 destination charge.
Rivian’s ditching today’s matrix of motor-driven trim lines and aligning the R1 models with the new R2 configurations. The base dual motor models are now called the Premium model with the tri-motor models morphing into the Performance trim while Quad stands pat at Quad. Power outputs, performance specs, battery configurations, and range all stand pat with up to 410 miles of EPA-estimated range on a Premium R1S and 420 miles of range on the R1T.
Rivian
Rivian said second-row captain’s chairs have been the most requested interior feature to date. With the second-row captain’s chair option joining the R1S lineup the three-row SUV can now be configured to seat six or seven passengers. But the new seating configuration is part of a dizzying pricing and options matrix that will translate to the six-seat configuration adding $4,000 to $6,000 to the bill depending on the trim and interior color. The seats themselves are basically a $1,500 option, but they require bundling of packages or costly interior colors.
The captain’s chairs are on rails and will slide while tilting the seat back forward to access the third row at the touch of a seat-back mounted button just like today’s bench seat. The captain’s chairs can fold flat, like today’s bench seat, to enable a completely flat cargo area for those who want to use the six-seat R1S to camp with an air mattress in the back at night. The captain’s chairs are heated, feature LATCH and top-tether anchors, have individual arm rests that fold flush into the seat edge, and have built-in cup holders that flip down from the seat’s inside edge.
Rivian clearly expects the pricey second-row captain’s chairs to be a popular options as the bench seat will be limited to the R1S Premium and R1S Performance and Quad with the Black Mountain Signature interior. Buyers hoping to configure an R1S Performance or Quad with a Slate Sky or Ocean Coast interior and second-row bench seat will be out of luck as they are now six-seater configurations only.
Rivian
A new Esker Silver color that is said to give the R1 a liquid-metal appearance hops from the R2 to the R1 lineup and replaces LA Silver. Rivian also introduced a new standard 20-inch wheel design on the R1T wrapped in Goodyear all-season rubber and it’ll be an option on R1T Performance models.
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As Director of Content and Product, Joel draws on over 15 years of newsroom experience and inability to actually stop working to help ensure The Drive shapes the future of automotive media. He’s also a World Car Award juror.