The charging port of the Rivian R2 moves to the rear left like the Tesla

• Rivian confirmed the location of the rear left charging port in upcoming R2 models
• Previously displayed at the back right for roadside charging and Rivian-owned networks
• Means R2 owners can make using Supercharger stations easier

Front, back, left, right? Automakers still can’t agree on where to place electric car charging ports on cars. But it seems Tesla’s long-standing preference for the left-rear has convinced another US electric car maker – Rivian.

News of Rivian’s move to the location of future electric vehicles broke Thursday via Rivian forums, where a contributor noted that an executive confirmed the change in the charging port from the brand’s current right-rear location when the R2 and R3X were shown at the Rivian Space in Pasadena, California.

“We can confirm that the charging port is on (the). rear driver side of R2“, a Rivian spokesperson told Green Car Reports on Friday. “We look forward to releasing more information and specifications on the R2 in the future.”

Range problems with the R1 charging port on Superchargers?

The change may have something to do with Rivian owners’ experiences at Tesla Supercharger stations, where the R1S and R1T models’ charging port is currently located on the left side of the vehicle, just in front of the driver’s door. At some Supercharger locations, Rivian drivers have had to get creative with parking to reach their charging port with the Tesla port, as is well documented on YouTube and in forum posts.

Rivian confirmed last June that it would adopt the Tesla-based charging connector, also called J3400, as part of the North American Charging Standard (NACS). The R2 and R3 families debuted as prototypes in March with the Tesla connector under neatly reduced charging port doors on the right rear of the vehicle instead of the bulkier CCS port. Then in March, the company announced it would begin shipping free NACS adapters to R1 customers, which would arrive in April. Since then, Superchargers have been popping up in Rivian travel plans.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, there are currently 2,321 Tesla Supercharger locations in the United States with 26,217 charging ports.

Right back was for roadside charging, Rivian networks

In March, at the launch of the $45,000 Rivian R2 and the smaller, even cheaper R3 and R3X, all based on the same next-generation platform and part of the same product family, Rivian representatives hinted that the placement of the charging port on the rear right was a ideal location for street charging– is likely to gain traction in Europe, where Rivian plans to sell many of these vehicles, and eventually in more U.S. cities.

Rivian’s chief designer Jeff Hammoud then answered some additional questions about the placement of the charging port and made it clear that Rivian had already given a lot of thought to the position.

“We did a lot of research, especially in European countries with left-hand traffic,” Hammoud told a small group that included Green Car Reports. “We saw a lot of people charging their cars on the street, and you saw everything from charging cables wrapped over hoods to get to the other side, and we wanted to solve that problem.”

Hammoud summarized that placing the port at the rear of the vehicle instead of the front meant fewer cables, less weight and lower costsIn addition, Rivian is expanding its current charging network for these front left position of the R1and he added: “If you turn the car back into the gap, it’s essentially the exact same spot.”

And to underline what Rivian has confirmed and what it hasn’t: Technically, this relocation has only been confirmed for the R2, not necessarily for the R3.

However, Tesla’s choice of location for the R2 suggests that the sheer volume of charging on Tesla’s Supercharger network could be worth it for customers and perhaps for the brand’s image. And by making it easier for these future, more mainstream vehicles to use the Supercharger network, it means future traffic and revenue for these Tesla stations. Will other automakers follow suit?