Rivian R1T
4.0
/ 5
EV Decide Score |
Rivian R1T Expert Review

4.0
/ 5
EV Decide Score |
Like
- Unparalleled performance
- Off-Road dominance
- Copious anounts of storage
Don't Like
- Lack of Android Auto / Apple Carplay
- Disjointed voice assistant
- Charging times
At 0-60 in 3 seconds and a quarter mile time in the mid 11 second range, the R1T is the fastest truck ever made, period. In a drag race, Hagerty showed that it beats a Ram TRX by half a football field and a ford Raptor by entire football field. They also raced it against the Raptor while towing a 6,000lb truck and it still won. You really can't get more performance out of any truck on the market today.
Two captains chairs up front and a bench in the back that is excessively wide make the seating in the R1T great. The only reason it doesn't get a 5 is because there's a truck bed where you could put more seats, as Rivian did in the SUV version.
If you include the bed, which comes with a powered tonneau cover you have copious amounts of storage. Not to mention a large frunk, gear tunnel, spare tire area, and compartments underneath the back seats.
The materials in the R1T are top tier, however don't fit into the traditional definition of luxury, no ostrich skin leather here. But for a truck, that is made to adventure, the finishing and comfort are top tier in the truck market.
The R1T is expensive when compared to the average selling price of a vehicle in the US right now, however considering it is the fastest performance truck ever made, and can off-road with the best of them, it's more akin to a Range Rover than a Ford Ranger. So given the class of vehicle it competes with, the cost is reasonable and a good value overall.
Combining all the public networks give the Rivian lots of options, however because those networks are still somewhat disjointed it's hard to give it a higher rating.
In a range test we did recently the R1T lasted for 236 miles out of 293 rated miles, which is about normal for most EVs. In terms of daily driver miles, the R1T is great, but if you regularly need to do long road trips you'll want to look at other options.
Charging is the one area the R1T can improve. With a top speed around 200kW it can charge fast, but because the larger battery and weight of the truck it can take a long time to charge. Even at home you'll want a high powered wall charger installed otherwise you won't likely be able to fill up overnight, which is one of the great things about owning an EV.
The R1T is the closest thing to a Tesla on the market today. However, their choice of Alexa for their voice assistant and lack of support for Apple Carplay and Android Auto make the system a bit confused. Luckily, the software can be fixed and is already improving.