ALISTAIR WEAVER:
Hi, Alistair Weaver here for Edmunds with the
first fully independent instrumented test
of the Rivian R1T. [MUSIC PLAYING] With Ford's F-150 Lightning
still a few months away and Tesla's Cybertruck
arriving, well, who knows when, Rivian really is first to
market with an electric truck. We're going to subject it to
the same industry-leading test that we applied to the
Tesla Plaid only last month. Here at our test
track, we're going to find out what this
835-horsepower truck really can do 0 to 60 in just 3
seconds, as Rivian claims. Then we're going to subject it
to the world-famous Edmunds EV range test and
find out whether it can do 314 miles on a single
charge, as the EPA claims. We're going to drive it
on the road, on the track, and in the dirt to find out
whether this $75 grand EV really makes sense
in the real world. And we're going to
discover whether the gear tunnel is an act of
genius or a Tesla yoke. Call to action, subscribe to
our YouTube channel and sell your car with
edmunds.com/sellmycar. You'd be mad not to.
And now, without further
ado, let's get on with it. We're about to kick off with the
acceleration test, but first, a bit of preamble about
how we ended up here. Now, unlike some of
the films that you might have seen on YouTube
of Rivian's bumbling from state to state, our video
is not paid for by Rivian. We also turned down an
invite to the press launch because we want to do our
own thing under our control. This is a press demonstrator,
but no one from the company is in attendance today. We have the truck for two
days, not quite as long as we hoped or, indeed,
asked for, but still enough time to do
a thorough test, particularly as we're intending
to work through the night. Anyway, enough of that. On with the fun stuff. This is where we recently
tested the Tesla Plaid, and where we test every car
that secures an official Edmunds rating. It's normal asphalt,
replicating the real world. And for those who care
about these things, we're just outside
LA at sea level.
The R1T has four electric
motors, one for each wheel, with a combined output of
835 horsepower and 908 pound feet of torque. For a bit of context,
the new Ford Raptor produces 450 horsepower
and 510 pound feet. So the Rivian has
quite a bit then. Rivian says it's good
for 0 to 60 in 3 seconds, but we never take
their word for it. Now, before we hand over
to our head of testing, Jonathan L Fallon, a
quick health warning. In most of our film,
you'll see a wet track because, unbelievably,
it rained in LA.
But we did manage to
test the R1T in the dry before the heavens opened. It's just that our cameraman
was still getting dressed. In other words, the
numbers are legit. Over to Jonathan. SPEAKER: OK, so we're getting
set up for our acceleration run now. The Rivian has a bunch of
different drive modes here, but the mode that
we want is sport. So I'm going to go ahead and
select that on the screen. I'm going to do the
usual foot on the brake. I'm going to floor
the accelerator, and then let go and
see what happens. OK, here we go. Oh. All right. Solid launch. A lot of wind noise. OK, that's solid. Definitely delivers that
performance EV experience off the line, so it just
leaps off the line. This definitely feels
like a fast truck. It's certainly the
fastest truck I've driven if the numbers hold up.
So we'll find out the results. ALISTAIR WEAVER: As
always, it's going to take us some time
to crunch the numbers. So while we're doing that,
let's take a closer look. Rivian has billions of backing
from Amazon and even Ford, so don't think of them
as a backyard startup. They already reckon they're
worth over $50 billion. Thankfully, some of
that cash is reflected in the actual product. At first glance, it all
looks pretty familiar. And maybe it's less
likely to end up on a bedroom wall
than a cybertruck, but there are some
really cool details. These headlights
and the LED strip are likely to become
a Rivian signature, and they look awesome at night– different without
being too try hard. A member of our test team,
Kirk, put it really well to me this morning when he said
that the whole thing feels like it's been done
by a product designer, and that's different to how
a car is normally conceived, where the car designer
argues with the marketing department and the
engineering department and you end up with
a bit of a fudge.
Having said that, there
is one detail that's grating on me a little bit. This is an all-new
startup brand, so why did they steal
a badge from Renault? The batteries are
under the floor and the motors are
with each wheel, so there's plenty
of room in the front for a pretty useful frunk,
which is also power operated, which is nice. There's actually 11 cubic
feet of space in here, which is just about
enough for my weekly shop. And just in case
you were thinking of taking somebody
hostage, there is a little release
button inside. So don't do it, kids. Alongside the frunk, you
also get storage space underneath the rear seats. And then, of course,
there's the Rivian's piece de resistance, the so-called
gear tunnel, which gives you another 11 cubic feet of space. There's enough room
for maybe a set of golf clubs or a junior stroller. Or if you've got
$5 grand to burn, Rivian will sell you
a bespoke kitchen set for the ultimate
camping adventure. Alongside the gear
tunnel, you also get these handy fold
out seats that I was demonstrating
earlier and can support the weight of
a 300-pound person.
So that should cover off
most, if not all, US truckers. And what's more, it
can act as a step so you can stand up even
if you're in tight jeans and jump into the bed. Size wise, it's somewhere
between a midsize and a full-sized truck. It's seven inches longer than
a gas-powered Ford Ranger, but almost 16 inches shorter
than the F-150 Lightning EV. It's also narrower than both,
which I think is a good thing. There's also some nice
detailing here in the bed. You'd probably
expect power points and anchor points these days,
although these are really nicely designed. But how about this? You've also got an onboard
compressor with enough pipe to reach each of the four tires. Now, that's really cool if
you're venturing off-road into the sand or such like.
Payload and towing
out here, you say– at 1,760 pounds,
it's competitive with the new Lightning,
while its claimed towing capacity of 11,000 pounds
actually outpoints the Ford EV. Also hidden from view under here
is space for a full-sized tire, which is another feature
which gives me peace of mind. The bed itself is
4.5 foot long, but it extends to 7 feet in total. Final thoughts on
the bed– well, you get a tailgate power
down, but not the power up.
So you do have to do at
least one bicep curl. You do, though, get
a powered bed cover. While that's doing its thing,
let's take a look inside. There's also some
clever thinking in here. I love this Bluetooth
speaker, for example, which is automatically
charged and emerges from the center console. It even has a light. How cool is that? And while you don't
get a Rolls-Royce style umbrella in the door, you
do get a Rivian torch, which is, again, automatically
charged by the car's systems. Good clever product thinking. I even like these
pretty funky keys. So many manufacturers overlook
these details these days.
The rest of the
cabin is actually pretty conventional– seat
screens, that sort of thing. There's actually quite a lot
of Tesla influence in here, particularly in some of these
minor control functions– probably because a lot
of Rivian's engineers originally hail
from Elon's army. Like Tesla, Rivian's
developed its own software and won't be offering Apple
CarPlay or Android Auto, even as an optional extra, which
I think is a bit of a shame, particularly when it comes to
making calls and sending text messages, that sort of thing. And unlike Tesla,
you can't currently get Netflix, YouTube, or any
of the other paraphernalia. Speaking seriously, though, for
a moment, it does look nice.
Although at times it can
appear a little slow and even a little buggy, there will
be over-the-air updates. It's also nice to see built-in
Spotify so I can listen to my favorite country music. Would you believe I am a
genuine country music fan? Love me a bit of
Emily Scott Robinson. Let's talk quality,
which, as we know, is a traditional bugbear
of many a startup. And overall, it's pretty
impressive in here, both in terms of the quality
of the material choice. I love this word and
this fake vegan leather– fake vegan leather, real
vegan leather– real vegan leather that didn't
come from a cow, however it's best expressed.
And it's not only good in
terms of the perceived quality, also seems to be screwed
together pretty well. There's a couple
of little bugbears. This wireless charging
pad is a bit hit and miss, and there's a bit of
trim on the door pillar that feels a bit loose. But overall, and
I know I'm going to get hate mail
for saying this, this is already better than
the Tesla Model S Plaid we tested last month or
even my own Tesla Model 3. Good job, Rivian. I'm also a fan of
this driving position.
The steering wheel has
plenty of adjustment, both up and down, so I can
get it nice and close to me and give a very kind of
commanding view over the hood. Nice to see old
school features too like a proper speedometer
in front of your eyes, and, look, column stalks for the
indicators, windscreen wipers– old school tech working
in the real modern world. Let's take a look in the back. So to the rear quarters. Again, there's some
nice detailing in here. I like these coat hooks
with built-in USB-C charger. As you can see, there isn't
a huge amount of room. This seat's set up for me. I'm 6 foot 4, so I know
I'm at the extremes.
But there's still less room
than you'd get in, say, a full-sized truck for the
same or even less money. Another thing is that this
vehicle, as we said earlier, is significantly narrower than
the Ford Ranger or, certainly, the F-150. And while it's fine
for two people, sitting three across
the middle here would be a bit of a squeeze. Headroom, though, is generous,
and this panoramic roof gives you a really nice sense
of outdoor freedom and space. Another nice feature if
you open this armrest, you can actually access the
gear tunnel from inside the car if you want to
grab odds and ends.
One thing that is
bugging me, though, and this is a bit of an aside,
when I grew up in Europe, American cars had
fantastic names like Viper, Firebird, Cobra. COVID Rivian gives us
the R1T, followed shortly by the R1S SUV. You put so much thought,
passion, and detail into pretty much every
detail of this vehicle, is that really the
best they could do? Anyway, that's just my opinion. Let's drive it. Driving impressions– Rivian
R1T in the wet, on the track, here we go. What's it feel like to drive? Well, the answer is
it doesn't actually feel that heavy like so many
electric vehicles, the center of gravity in this thing is so
low because all the batteries are under the floor.
And so the motor, you don't
have that impression of mass that you would in
a gas-powered car of this extraordinary weight. Actually, it feels pretty agile. And I think that
impression of agility is helped by the driving
position in this incredibly commanding view. It reminds me, in fact, of an
old Range Rover or something like that before they became a
bit trendy and unfashionable. It does feel properly quick. I'm actually running around,
and let me just check what mode. I'm in going into
all-purpose, I'm going to change it
into sport mode. So here we go. That is 835 horsepower. And maybe we're just getting
used to these things, but it doesn't feel that fast. Seems crazy to say
that we're just getting used to electric
cars that will do 0 to 60 in 3 and a bit seconds. Well, the first
part of the throttle is actually left for
the regen.
So you have to give it a bit of a
prod before the action starts, but after that, it's actually
pretty nice and linear. And the brakes still have
that slightly artificial, spongy feel that you get
from a lot of electric cars, particularly Mercedes
new EQS, for example. They just don't feel as
linear and responsive as they do in a traditional gas car. But having said that,
because the regen on this car, regenerative
braking, is considerable, you don't actually use
the brake pedal very much. Certainly if you're away
from a track like this and on the road, honestly, you
almost never touch the brakes. This is very much
a one-pedal car in the traditions of a
Tesla Model 3 or Model S. So if you come to a stop, you
just ease off the throttle and the car will
decelerate pretty quickly as it tries to provide
some electrical energy back to the battery.
What else do we like? Well, the steering is good. This thing has very
little body roll. It's really hunkered down
on its air suspension. It is nice and responsive
at the straight ahead. You can place it
accurately on the road– tell the track's a
little bit greasy. I've got the stability off. It certainly doesn't feel like
a traditional big, heavy truck. It's very well sorted
for such a startup. OK, I'm going to
mess with it now. We're going to turn the
ride quality into soft and going to put it
into all purpose. I'm going to turn the regen
to medium from the max that it was on before. I'm going to put the
stability back on. OK, so this is pretty much
kind of default road mode. I'm having more fun in this
than I thought I would. A lot of these EVs are
really good at going fast in a straight line and much less
good at going around corners. But you can tell
this has been set up by enthusiasts, people who
really know what they're doing.
And I think they
went out of their way not just to build a truck,
but to build a really kind of engaging on-road vehicle. I know not many people are
going to take it on a track like we are here, but you just
feel a little bit of push, and feel the power again, and
away she goes 60 miles an hour, 70 miles an hour, 85 miles
an hour– hard on the brakes, pretty stable. Turn her in, whoa,
little bit of push. Honestly, for something
that's this heavy, this size, this powerful, this
is a hoot to drive. I think it's interesting–
if you think about who's going to buy this car,
it's probably not people stepping out of a
traditional truck like an F-150 or a Ranger. It's probably people stepping
out at more luxury vehicles. And I think Rivian's done a good
job of providing something that will feel familiar to them. OK, back to the pits. So our in-house boffins have
finally crunched the numbers. Welcome back, Jonathan. SPEAKER: Hey, Alistair. ALISTAIR WEAVER: Jonathan,
you have some numbers for us.
SPEAKER: OK, so this thing
weighed in at 7,150 pounds. ALISTAIR WEAVER: Which
is kind of insane. That's almost 2,000 pounds. What's a normal full-size truck? 5,500? SPEAKER: Yeah we're
talking 5,500– that's on the heavier side. So this thing has
certainly surprised. It's packing some
serious weight. ALISTAIR WEAVER: I know it's
got over 800 horsepower, but with that much weight
to pull, it needs it. Now, Rivian are claiming
0 to 60 in 3 seconds. We did. SPEAKER: We did– ALISTAIR WEAVER: Drum roll. SPEAKER: We did 3.5 seconds. And that's without rollout. ALISTAIR WEAVER: So
we didn't actually match Rivian's figures, which
is kind of unusual for us. SPEAKER: Right. ALISTAIR WEAVER:
And we should say, this truck is on
all-season tires. But this as road
friendly as the R1T gets.
There's nothing here that would
necessarily trip those numbers. SPEAKER: I'm pretty
confident in these figures. ALISTAIR WEAVER: On the skid
pad, it registered 0.87G, which is the best figure we've
ever achieved for a truck. That makes the Rivian
hugely impressive. Quarter mile? SPEAKER: Quarter mile, it
passed it at 11.9 seconds at 109 miles per hour,
which is really moving. Surprisingly to me was
how quickly it stopped– 60 to 0, 117 feet, which
is, frankly, incredible considering how
much this weighs. That's impressive. ALISTAIR WEAVER: This is kind of
like Porsche 911 Carrera fast. It's Corvette fast. SPEAKER: Yeah. ALISTAIR WEAVER: So
it's not just a truck. It's actually right up there
with most of the sports cars that we test before we get
into the really fast stuff. SPEAKER: This is faster than
a lot of the sports cars that we've tested. And the fact that
this can go off-road, you've got so much comfort
and utility is really a huge accomplishment.
ALISTAIR WEAVER:
Welcome to the future. Thank you, sir. Go back to sleep. SPEAKER: Wait, hold up. ALISTAIR WEAVER: The other
big part of our process is the now-famous, or depending
on your point of view, occasionally infamous,
Edmunds EV range test. We drive every electric
car on a real world loop from our office in Santa
Monica, testing how far they'll travel on a single charge. Notes from the test team
include a ride quality that's good for a
truck, if not quite up to the standard
of the RAM 1500 and a complaint about
excess road noise creeping into the cabin. The EPA claims a 314-mile range,
but we achieved 317 miles. For context, that's the same as
a Tesla Model Y long range SUV.
But, and this is a
very big but, the R1T is the least efficient
EV we've ever tested. Yes, we know it's a
truck, but it still consumed 48 kilowatt
hours per 100 miles, versus 27 for the Model Y. Only Audi's E-tron at 44
kilowatt hours comes close. And if you deploy
all 800 horses, don't expect to get
anywhere near these figures. It is a poor performance,
but it's also worth noting that despite
this, it's still cheaper to fuel than a
gas-powered alternative. Let's have a little cruise
around our very genteel course. Some basic cameras,
which give us some views of the road
ahead, but actually, there's not a lot of variety
here compared to, say, the new Bronco, for example. And actually back,
actually front– you do feel it's still
a little bit buggy. And then we can go
into our off-road menu. We've got auto,
nature awaits you. Rockwall, nothing can stop
you, which, let's face it, is a pretty bold claim. And then you have
the opportunity here to choose your
different settings. This is ride height,
13.1 inches– actually, you
probably want to go up to max which gives us
the full 15 inches.
Ride height change not
possible due to overheated air compressor. This is new. OK, so the good thing is
we are at 13.1 inches. We have got plenty of height to
get over this fairly mediocre course, but interesting– there
are still a few little gremlins that we're starting to
see in this car, which, judging by the VIN number,
is still in prototype trim. But even so. We are in Rockwall, which is
allowing me to sort of gently modulate the throttle. We have these little bumps.
Honestly, this is pretty
simple for this vehicle. What is nice in an EV is
just how quiet everything is. There is something
that's kind of quite nice of being at one with nature
in a car that makes no noise. If I was choosing one
of these, although it's going to add even more to
the extraordinary weight, I probably would go for
the extended battery pack, because if I were serious
about going off-road, I think it would just give me
a little bit more confidence. Ah, cute little
Monday afternoon drive over some rocks, advantage
of that air suspension is in theory. It gives you independence
at each corner, which should help with the articulation. I am just going to
have a little play. Here we go. One thing that I
think is pretty cool, a little bit of gravel here
that can demonstrate it, is you've got very, very
tight turning circle. Look at that. That's really
impressive, and that's got to help you off-road
in a vehicle this big. I think that's a key advantage
of a motor at each corner and the whole way
this car interacts.
You're not restricted by
physics in the same way that you are in a
traditional gas-powered car. I'm wearing my full
Dakar Rally jacket, because we were
hoping to take the R1T to the kind of
off-road facilities we use for most of our
testing in the rough stuff. But then Rivian
wanted their car back, so we're kind of here making
the best of a bad lot. Honestly, this course is
really built for SUVs. And to be honest, it's
a bit Michael Mouse. But we can talk
about the hardware. The Rivian has an
independent air suspension, and that allows you to
Jack up the ride height to a maximum of 15 inches. Now, to give you
some context, that's around 6 inches more
than the F-150 Lightning, about 5.5 inches more or so
than a traditional gas-powered F-150. And actually, you can
see some of the hardware in here and the
clearance that it offers.
The other thing I really
like about this truck, particularly compared to
gas-powered alternatives, if you've got a flat
underbody, you've got a motor at each
of the four corners, you haven't got
any differentials, or exhaust systems, or anything
else to hang down below. So that really helps you
in the proper rough stuff. And if you could follow
me here, Charlie, this is giving you a little bit of
a sense of the articulation, which is pretty impressive. Honestly, we can't wait to get
this into the proper boonies and see what it will really do.
Bit frustrated right now. I wish we had this longer. So what else do you
need to know if you're thinking of buying a Rivian? Well, firstly, you won't
be visiting a dealer. Rivian, like Tesla, is
trying to sell direct. And for now, at least,
that pretty much means a mobile shopping
and servicing experience. How will that work in practice? Well, we don't know. This is a new brand
with a new product so everything is unproven. What else? Well, it is
undeniably expensive, even if you allow
for the possibility of a $7,500 federal tax credit. The R1T starts at $67,500. This one you see here is
a smidgen under $75 grand. And if you add desirable options
like extra long range battery pack, then you can soon
see that price spiraling up to $90,000-plus. Now, that's a lot when you
consider that Ford's F-150 Lightning, which is
also an EV truck, will start at just
under $40 grand, although it'll be more expensive
for the plusher version, shall we say.
Tesla also originally
said its Cybertruck would be around $40
grand too, but frankly, at the moment, who knows? Personally, I think it's
going to be quite a bit more. In short, then, the
Rivian is expensive, but it does at least
feel like a luxury good. So who is actually
going to buy this truck? And more importantly,
should they? Well, it's most obvious
rivals in terms of price are gas-powered monsters like
the RAM TRX and Ford Raptor. But honestly, I didn't see
people cross-shopping those. Nor do I think it'll
be used as a work truck because, frankly, it's just
too expensive and too precious for that. I think it will actually appeal
to a whole new generation of truckers, people who
want to go surfing, mountain biking, or skiing– in other words,
affluent techie types with a taste for adventure,
sort of people who wear head to toe Patagonia.
I think they're
going to love it. And honestly, so do I.
Welcome to the party, Rivian. [MUSIC PLAYING].