Rivian found 14 of its new R2 SUVs with a battery bolt that may not be tight

Fourteen Rivian R2 SUVs left the Normal, Illinois, factory with a high-voltage battery bolt that was not tightened as it should have been, and the company has recalled every one of them. NHTSA campaign 26V625000 covers only 14 model-year 2027 R2 vehicles, built between May 18 and August 27, 2026. Rivian’s own recall number is FSAM-1888, and the risk it describes is a loss of drive power.

Save more, waste less: The Cool Down’s newsletter sends smart, simple changes that help you and the planet in your everyday life.

Subscribe to The Cool Down →

We may earn a commission if you sign up.

A 14-vehicle recall is rare enough to be a story by itself. It sits beside an unusually large one: the first recall on the R2 came in September and covered roughly 100,000 R1 and R2 vehicles over a rearview camera software bug that was fixed over the air. The battery bolt is a second R2 recall, and unlike the first it cannot be repaired by software, because the defect is a fastener.

An M6 bolt that passed a torque station and then did not

The component in Rivian’s Part 573 safety recall report is a bolt, part number SC00036202-D, specified as M6 by 1.0 millimeters and 24.5 long with a class 8.8 rating, connected to the high-voltage battery. The report describes the defect as an improperly torqued fastener, and says the vehicle may lose motive power without prior warning, which could increase the risk of a crash. The filing does not name a supplier, leaves the supplier fields blank, and does not state the torque specification.

Rivian estimates that 100 percent of the 14 vehicles have the defect. That is a different posture from most recalls, where a defect rate is estimated across a population; here the filing treats every one of the 14 vehicles as carrying the condition, and the repair is an inspection of each one rather than a sample check. The NHTSA campaign record classes the recall under critical fasteners in the propulsion system, and its summary is that the high-voltage battery fastener may not have been tightened properly.

An operator on the line caught what the machine let through

The discovery was human. On September 17, 2026, the filing says, a Rivian operator found an under-torqued high-voltage fastener after it had been torqued at an automated station. Trade coverage by Not a Tesla App, citing the filing, notes that the part had already passed the plant’s automated torque station, and that the report does not explain how under-torqued bolts got through. Rivian reprogrammed the station to reject fasteners that do not meet the required torque value.

The company spent September 17 through 24 investigating the root cause and the affected population, and on September 24 it decided on a voluntary recall of all 14 vehicles. The Part 573 report was submitted on September 29, five days later. Rivian says it knows of no customer reports, accidents, injuries or fatalities, and the filing does not mention warranty claims. From the operator’s find to the recall decision took seven days, and from the find to the filing took twelve.

The detail that matters most for the 14 owners is that this is not the kind of recall that waits for a software release. As Not a Tesla App reported, owners will get an inspection of the connection, with repair or replacement of any damaged components, plus a properly torqued fastener, and that requires a service visit. The report frames the remedy as inspect, repair or replace: components will be replaced with properly torqued fasteners or with new parts.

The build window explains why the number is so small. The 14 vehicles were assembled over a window of just over three months, May 18 to August 27, 2026, and the filing says the automated station has since been reprogrammed to reject fasteners below the required torque. The report gives no count of how many of the 14 had been delivered to customers, and it says no dealer notification is planned, so the owners and the company will deal with each other directly.

Letters on November 28, and a VIN lookup the same day

Rivian’s schedule is unhurried by design. The filing calls it a phased recall, with owner notification due by November 29, 2026 and a planned notification date of November 28. The NHTSA record says affected VINs become searchable on NHTSA.gov on that same date, and gives Rivian customer service as 1-888-748-4261, with the company’s recall number FSAM-1888 to cite. No dealer notification or interim owner notice is planned, and the report lists no previous related recall.

For 14 SUVs, the practical effect is narrow. An owner of one of the earliest R2s will get a letter before the end of November, can look up the VIN on NHTSA’s recall page for campaign 26V625 once it is posted, and will bring the vehicle to Rivian for the inspection that shows whether the battery connection needed work. The campaign is listed in NHTSA’s recall dataset for reports received September 29 through October 7, where the entry’s received date of September 29 falls at the start of that window.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

Save more, waste less: Subscribe to The Cool Down →

We may earn a commission if you sign up.