The 2022 Rivian R1T is the Quickest Truck in Car and Driver Testing History

Welcome to Car and Driver. I'm Carlos Lago. And today, we're going over our experience testing and evaluating the Rivian R1T. If you didn't already know, the Rivian R1T is an all-electric pickup truck. And it's the first one actually being delivered to customers ahead of other EV trucks, like the Ford F-150 Lightning, Chevrolet Silverado EV, GMC Hummer EV, and hopefully, eventually, maybe one day, the Tesla Cybertruck. EV trucks have a lot of really cool potential, from the incredibly high amount and instant torque you get from electric motors to the space you get by getting rid of the engine, drive shaft, differentials, and so on. Of course, there are a ton of questions about the R1T, like what's it like to live with every day? How quick is it? What's the range like? Can you use it like a truck? Where does it fit in among pickup trucks? To find out, late last year, we borrowed an R1T from Rivian for about a week. We did our usual performance and range testing. And we lived with it just like an owner would. Now, this was an early build truck. And there were more than a few small problems. But we'll talk about those later. If you want a high-level summary now, the R1T is a really cool and highly capable pickup with some extremely smart features. The thing you might have noticed with many new EVs is that they don't fall in line with generally accepted vehicle categories when you're talking about size and price. Because there's no engine or traditional transmission, EVs have freedom when it comes to sizing and where you put things in the footprint. And Rivian's taken advantage of this. The R1T is somewhere between the size of a Ford Ranger and an F-150. On the other hand, it costs as much as a luxury half ton and weighs as much as a quarter ton. But how much does it cost? It starts in the high $60,000 range. And our truck was optioned close to $80,000. That's a lot of money. But the R1T is a lot of truck, size excluded. You get four electric motors, one per wheel, and more than 900 horsepower and 900 pound-feet of torque. So it's quick, right? Yes. We recorded 0 to 60 in 3.3 seconds, and the quarter mile in 11.9 seconds at 110 miles an hour. We recorded 0 to 100 in 9 seconds flat. Interestingly, the R1T hits its top speed immediately after the quarter mile at 111 miles an hour. But I digress. That makes the R1T the quickest truck we've ever tested, beating the previous record holder, the Ram TRX, by a few tenths of a second. And the Rivian, on our scales, weighed just a touch more than the TRX at 7,200 pounds, roughly. So the R1T is heavy, yes. But that weight makes the other results more impressive. Braking, for example. Car and Driver's braking test process for all vehicles is five 70-mile-an-hour back-to-back stops down one length of a 1 and 1⁄2 miles straightaway, and then a sixth stop at the end coming the other way, allowing for some cool-down time to see how the braking system handles the stress. The R1T's stops were all in the high 170-foot range, which is really good considering the weight and the all-terrain tires our truck came equipped with. For reference, the TRX took 189 feet. You also don't expect great handling from a truck. But the R1T generated a very respectable 0.8 G average around our 300-foot skid pad. Not only are you able to disable stability control fully, but the torque vectoring also pushes the rear end out, which helps handling. Now let's talk about range. Car and Driver's EV range test is a constant 75-mile-an-hour on the freeway because long-distance highway driving is where we believe range matters most. That means our real-world range results are lower than the EPA ratings, which are kind of an average between city and highway driving. Take both into account if you're looking for an EV based on range. Now the EPA says the R1T has a range of 314 miles with its current battery pack offering, though Rivian says a max battery pack that's coming out later will offer 400 miles of range. In our highway test, we saw 220 miles. As for observed efficiency, we recorded 35 MPGe equivalent, which is half of the EPA estimate of 70 MPGe. There are a lot of caveats here. Our truck had the optional and no-cost 20-inch wheels with Pirelli Scorpion All-Terrain Elect tires. And there's a 21-inch wheel tire package that's more street and range friendly. We also did this test in winter in Michigan, so it was cold out or near freezing, to be more specific. We'll have to get an R1T back to test in a more temperate season to see how much the cold affected the battery. What about towing? It's a truck after all, right? Well, like with the few EVs that can tow, when you attach a trailer to the R1T, the range plummets. We saw it drop from 270 miles to 103. At 70 miles an hour, our rate of consumption with a 5,600-pound trailer equated to 110 miles. And it would be even lower if we approached the R1T's maximum 11,000-pound tow rating. And all that's before you factor how few, if any, charging stations are built with trailers in mind so you can pull through to plug your car in instead of having to unhook a trailer to take up a charging spot. If you ask us, it's going to take a while before the EV infrastructure allows EVs to replace diesel and gas trucks for towing. But there is an upside. Our test team reported that the towing with the R1T was, quote, borderline dreamy with smooth and plenty of power. So it's quick and it's capable, but what's the R1T like every day as a driver? Well, it's really, really, really nice. Putting aside the stellar straight-line performance, what makes this a great truck is how well it drives. This is a very quiet truck. We recorded 67 decibels at 70 miles an hour, which is what we recorded very similar to what we recorded in our long-term Tesla Model 3. That means you don't really hear any road noise, wind noise, or tire noise on the freeway. And the consequence is that it's actually pretty easy to speed on accident. And this thing rides really well, like luxury sedan will. It's got front and rear independent suspension with adaptive dampers, air springs, and hydraulic anti-roll control. That's the kind of tech that people go gaga over with McLarens and how smooth they drive. Any truck owner that gets behind the wheel of this thing is going to think it's a Cadillac. It's that good. If we do have a complaint, it's the brake feel. It's kind of a minor complaint, but the feel just isn't that great through the pedal. Fortunately, though, you don't have to use the brake pedal that much, if at all, because the regenerative braking is so aggressive. There's enough that happens in the normal setting that you don't really need to put the brake regen in its most aggressive mode. You can just kind of turn it on and leave it as is, and that's really nice. And we haven't even talked about the really thoughtful features you get with the R1T. You've probably already seen the handy storage tunnel between the cab and the bed that you can access from the cab. It's really slick. The access flaps hold the first aid kit and the lines for the air compressor. And by the way, there's an onboard air compressor in the bed. That's a really cool thing. That's normally a costly aftermarket upgrade for off-roaders and overlander types. There's space under the bed for an optional full-size spare, which might be awkward to remove, but hey, it's there. And there's even a 1,000-lumen flashlight in the door that uses the same battery cell as the pack underneath the truck. This is all really cool stuff. But what's the interior like? We all got a good laugh at the vegan leather seating material, which to us sounds like a marketer's way of saying vinyl. But the rest is really attractive. Stuff like open-pore wood and subtle ambient lighting is what you'd expect for this kind of money. The screens and interfaces are, let's say, inspired by Tesla, both the similarities in graphics and the fact that you have to use the screens to adjust things that we wish you didn't, like the steering wheel or side mirrors. That's just not great, but again, minor stuff. But that brings us to the not-so-great category. The problems that we had are issues that we experienced with our truck. Again, the one that we borrowed was an early-build prototype, and there were more than a few issues. Many of these will likely be solved by the time these trucks reach owners, but we have to call them out. Let's start with fit and finish. The interior was really good, but there were a lot of misaligned exterior body panels, like the hood stood proud of the driver fender and the charging door didn't sit flush. But on the inside, the driver window, the auto-up, didn't work, and you really had to slam the doors for them to shut properly. And then we get back to the screens. They're very pretty, and they have plenty of toys and neat graphics to dive into, but the screens were nowhere near as responsive as what you get in a current Tesla, and it was really glitchy. The system crashed on us more than a few times and would occasionally hang for a few seconds after you put your input in. Similarly, the exterior camera systems are great in coverage, but the fidelity is not so great. They're low-resolution and low refresh rates. It kind of looks like you're watching a webcam from the 1990s. We'd be surprised if Rivian doesn't address these things, but early adopters should know that reliability is a legitimate concern with any new product and new company. Also, getting a Rivian fixed might be a challenge in the short term, as service centers surely aren't going to be as numerous. That may sound negative, but overall, again, we're extremely impressed with the R1T. Not only is it the first EV pickup to market, it's a genuinely smart one that clearly considers the needs and uses of many truck owners. The price means it's not going to be for everyone, but its performance, drivability, capability, and unique and thoughtful features make it a compelling alternative to the current crop of luxury pickups. This might all change when that F-150 Lightning Silverado EV, GMC Hummer EV, and maybe even the Cybertruck make it out, but we can't wait to see. Hey, thanks for watching. If you like this video, tell us in the comments below. And if you didn't, also tell us in the comments below. We appreciate what you're doing. We appreciate you subscribing to this channel, and we'll see you next time.