Off-road capabilities remain stellar
Rivian products truly shine off-road—especially when the road is mucky, sticky, dirty, rocky, and wet. Most R1 products won’t see more dust than they collect while dropping kids off at the local baseball field. But thanks to the kind folks at DirtFish, we were able to go off-road with both a base R1T—a dual-motor configuration with 533 hp (397 kW), 610 lb-ft (827 NM), and a Rivian-estimated range of up to 420 miles (676 km) of range with the Max Pack—and an R1S tri-motor, with 850 hp (633 kW), 1103 lb-ft (1,495 Nm), and around 410 miles of range with the Max Pack.
We took the R1T on a short but technical off-road loop that showed off its wading depth, suspension, and, most importantly, 20 percent faster computing power. The prior generation struggled with very slow, technical climbs on soft and loose ground, hunting with braking and throttle to get the vehicle through. You’d sometimes have to put in a touch more throttle than you’d want to get through some technical terrain, which, in the wrong circumstances, would leave you stuck. The new platform, with its fewer but faster ECUs and upgraded suspension, handled these kinds of situations with aplomb, fording deep water and powering up and over articulating bumps with ease and grace.
We tested the R1S tri-motor on a muddy, wet dirt track, putting it into rally mode, where it handled quick direction changes and driver inputs with nary a complaint as all that power was shunted automatically between the wheels that were slipping to the ones with grip in the loose but sticky mud. With most of the dynamic control systems turned off, it was very easy to get the R1S sideways on loose surfaces without feeling like you’d send it into the woods. The electronic safety systems are unintrusive enough to offer the right balance of fun within safe bounds.
Subtle visual changes, new colors and connectivity
Rivian’s design team also had a hand in the latest updates to the R1 platform, and the new tri- and quad-motor versions get a couple of new colors, new interior colors and fabrics, an electronically tinted glass roof, new headlights, new charging light indicators at the front and rear of the vehicle, and darker burnished trim options inside and out. (Both the glass roof tint and the darker trim options were mods that customers were doing on their own after purchasing first-gen R1s.)
