Last week, we asked what vehicles the newly revealed Rivian R3 (and R3X) reminded you of, and everyone seemed to agree that it resembled a hot hatch from the ’80s. It turns out, that’s no accident, according to the automaker’s chief design officer, Jeff Hammoud.
While I personally posited that the R3X looked like a second-generation Volkswagen Golf Country, readers pointed to the Dodge Omni, the Fiat Ritmo, the Ford Fiesta, and more. And while those are all good answers, Hammoud said his team was actually inspired by Group B rally cars.
“The brief I gave the design team was like, we need this to be our Solo Rally Car,” Hammoud recently told Road & Track. “So on our image boards, we had the Delta Integrale and the Audi Quattro coupe from that era.”
Read: The Web Thinks Rivian’s R3X Resembles An ’80s Hatch. What Does It Remind You Of?
Despite the strong similarities to those cars, the R3 manages the impressive trick of not looking like a copycat. And that wasn’t an accident either, according to Hammoud, who expressed his intention for the car to appear “like it’s from the future and the past at the same time”.
The new model also had to push the brand forward. While the R2 only had to be a smaller version of what the company was already doing, the R3 had to “expand the definition of what Rivian is” moving beyond the confines of traditional American-sized vehicles and embracing a more globally oriented footprint. And in so doing, Hammoud said he hopes that the high-performance R3X will convince even old school enthusiasts to consider a Rivian.
“If you think about EVs, it’s not a matter of if everything goes to electric. It’s a matter of when. And so how do you still invoke an emotion and still get people excited about something so different,” he said. “With cars like R3, maybe we’ll be able to convince guys like us that have been around, and are petrol-heads, to give it a try.”
