Can an off-roader be a fuel-efficient machine? After many years covering the automotive industry, the closest we ever got to that was the Suzuki Jimny and only because it was tiny and very light. These vehicles are usually massive and have a vast frontal area and big engines, making them not very frugal. The official EPA numbers for the Rivian R1T and R1S show that this is also the case with electric vehicles with that mission, even if they are much better than their combustion-engined competitors.
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EPA itself allows us to compare the R1T and R1S to some of its best opponents. We put them side-by-side with the Ford F-150 4WD HEV and the Ford Explorer HEV AWD in an attempt to achieve fair competition. Apart from being made by an early Rivian investor, they respectively match the R1T and the R1S in most dimensions.

As the main image in this article shows, the R1T achieves a combined energy consumption of 70 MPGe. The F-150 in its hybrid version manages to deliver only 24 MPG – or only 34.3% of what the Rivian electric pickup truck can offer.

When it comes to the R1S, the Explorer is slightly smaller than the electric SUV. Despite being lighter, it is still beaten by the Rivian by a large margin: 25 MPG against 69 MPGe of the R1S. That’s 36.2% of what the Rivian SUV gets with its electric motors. No other hybrid SUV of a comparable size does any better than this Ford.

As the first electric SUV of this size, the R1S has no direct opponent, just like the R1T. The closest we can get to it is with PHEVs (plug-in hybrids). Again, Ford Motor Company has the most competent contender to pit against the R1S, even with another brand: the Lincoln Aviator PHEV AWD. It offers 56 MPGe, still below the 69 MPGe of the Rivian product.

The only PHEVs from other brands that are almost as big as the R1S are the Land Rover Range Rover PHEV, with 42 MPGe, the Bentley Bentayga, with 46 MPGe. Some could argue that the BMW X5 xDrive45e (50 MPGe) or the Volvo XC90 AWD PHEV (55 MPGe) could also compete with it, but they are smaller and do not get the same energy efficiency numbers as the Aviator.

Comparing the R1T and the R1S to other electric cars that do not have the same off-road capabilities or similar dimensions would be just stupid. According to EPA, the Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus gets 142 MPGe, but it cannot be fairly compared to the current Rivian vehicles. If that were possible, the Toyota Prius Prime would beat most of Tesla’s products apart from the Model 3 SR+ and the LR AWD (134 MPGe): it gets 133 MPGe with a combustion engine.

With that in mind, Rivian must be pretty proud of its numbers. What still penalizes EVs is the range: the R1T gets 314 miles, while the R1S goes a little further: 316 mi. New battery technology or battery swapping may help solve that in the future.

Back in 2019, Rivian lit up the automotive internet with Tank Turn, demonstrated by the 2022 Rivian R1T in a viral YouTube video. Since then, though, the company has announced the feature is delayed and won't be ready at launch. There are several reasons why, which R1T chief engineer Charles Sanderson walked us through.

Tank Turn takes advantage of the R1T pickup and the R1S SUV's quad-motor platform to make the vehicle to spin like a top; to do so, the motors and wheels on one side of the vehicle rotate forward and the wheels and motors on the other side rotate backward at the same time. It's a devilishly simple idea that's proven much harder to program than you'd expect, and the core concern is safety. Getting the truck to Tank Turn safely and consistently is not a small challenge.

The biggest issue is the number of variables involved. What you see in the video was a best-case scenario, and the Rivian team was lucky enough to capture a good turn on the first try.

First, unless conditions are perfect, it's possible each wheel will have a different amount of grip than the others and require more or less power to break traction. While the truck's computer can read the road surface via suspension inputs as you're driving, there's no good way for it to know exactly what the surface under each tire is like when you come to a stop. If any wheel is getting too much or too little power during a Tank Turn, it can cause the vehicle to spin off in a random direction instead of rotating in one place. Power delivery has to be programmed very carefully to respond to changing grip before and during a Tank Turn. You can see this issue crop up right at the beginning of the video.

Next, because the truck's wheelbase isn't square (that is, because there's more distance between the front and rear axles than there is between the wheels on either side of each axle), it won't always rotate around the exact center of the vehicle, especially if the surface isn't consistent. If the point of rotation is off center, it can cause the vehicle to spin off in any direction instead of rotating in one place. A safeguard needs to be programmed to recognize this situation and either correct it or end the Tank Turn.

Then there's the matter of gravity. In order to execute a Tank Turn, all four wheels have to break traction. Once that happens, the truck is at the mercy of physics. If the surface is inclined in any direction, the truck will slide that direction as it spins. A safeguard needs to be programmed that can recognize this and shut it down before the truck spins into a tree, a ditch, or worse.

Finally, there's the matter of speed. During testing, Rivian discovered the amount of power needed to get all four wheels spinning results in a lot of wheel speed, which ends up making the truck spin around very fast. From inside the truck, it's a hell of a ride, so much so there's concern it'll scare drivers who aren't ready for it, which could result in a loss of control if the driver panics. Speed, of course, also exacerbates all the above issues.

Put it all together, and Tank Turn is really only easy to do in the middle of a big, flat, slippery field. Making it work anywhere else is a big challenge. The places a Tank Turn would actually be useful off-road are never level, wide-open spaces. The amount of programming and testing needed to make Tank Turn work safely and predictably is far too great for Rivian to develop it purely as a gimmick, so the engineers are dedicated to making it actually useful.

Right now, though, the majority of Rivian's engineering resources are dedicated to getting the R1T, R1S, and Amazon van out the door as smoothly as possible. After that, they'll have the R2 and R3 models to work on. Although the team hasn't forgotten about Tank Turn, a complicated off-road tool that most buyers will only ever use once to show off to their friends and family just isn't a top priority. Sanderson couldn't give us an updated timeline, but he knows full well how cool Tank Turn is and how plenty of people on his team are eager to perfect it.

BRECKINGRIDGE, Colorado – The sound of water rushing over football-sized rocks was the predominant background noise as the 2022 Rivian R1T treaded up the steep, slippery trail. There was nothing like the geared-down engine whine or the considerable cooling fan racket expected of a Jeep Wrangler in similar circumstances. Here, the open windows made it easy to pick out the clatter of wet tires contending with loose, muddy rocks – not to mention the chatter of birds looking warily on from neighboring trees.

Rivian's unique electric powertrain was making constant traction-management decisions in response to steady pressure on the accelerator pedal because each of its 34-inch 275/65R20 Pirelli Scorpion All Terrain Plus tires is propelled by its own direct-drive electric motor. The front pair of motors make a combined 415 horsepower and 413 pound-feet of torque, while the rear pair team up for another 420 hp and 495 lb-ft. Peak power was definitely not entering the equation at this point, but the Rivian’s immense torque potential was looming large.

That’s because electric motors produce their maximum torque from zero rpm, which in turn means there’s no need for a low-range transfer case, let alone a transmission. The presence of four traction-managed electric motors makes the idea of driver-selectable front, center and rear differential lockers completely unnecessary, too. Electric motors also give up nothing at altitude, and that mattered here because we were pushing 12,000 feet. The end result was forward progress that was steady, serene and sort of hypnotic over the challenging terrain. If this is what electric off-roading is like, sign me up.



On the pavement, the R1T’s steering feels nicely weighted and reasonably direct, and it's easy to hustle the truck through sweeping bends. Body roll is definitely well-managed, and big 34-inch Pirelli all-terrain tires are remarkably silent. There was more impact harshness on the many frost heaves than is preferred, but unfamiliar roads made this hard to judge. Still, the recommended on-road tire pressure for the Pirellis is a surprisingly high 48 psi. It’s unclear whether the standard 33-inch 275/55R21 tires would have fared better.

Most of my slowing throughout the day was done with lift-throttle regenerative braking, which is fine by me. The R1T has three regen modes, but even the Low setting is fairly strong (0.21g) and works down to a full stop. The Standard setting is stronger than many other EVs at 0.25g, and the Max setting is downright sporty at 0.30g. The real brakes include six-piston Brembo front calipers, but I didn’t regularly use them. The pedal operates the Brembos on a direct basis, so there’s no blending apart from what you get by adding brake force on top of the underlying regen that comes from releasing the accelerator.

The seats proved to be very comfortable and supportive all day, whether bouncing over rocks or hustling through turns. Front-seat head- and legroom were on par with full-sized trucks, but the overhead view of the R1T reveals a Coke-bottle shape that makes the cab narrower than its exterior width specification suggests. It never felt cramped inside, but its interior width is more like a Honda Ridgeline than an F-150. The Rivian’s relatively short overall length of 217.1 inches (versus 232.7 for the F-150 Lightning) does take a nibble out of the rear half of its crew cab, but rear legroom felt similar to that of the family friendly Ridgeline's.



The R1T rides on a four-wheel independent suspension, with double wishbones up front and a unique multilink setup in back. Both ends employ air springs that offer a full 6.5 inches of height adjustment served up in six increments from the lowest kneeling position (only in Park) to the highest “Max” off-road setting. The latter translates into 14.9 inches of ground clearance, more than 3 feet of water fording depth and healthy maximum approach, departure and breakover angles of 34, 29.3 and 25.7 degrees, respectively. I tackled the trail in “High” mode, because 13.1 inches of ground clearance proved to be more than sufficient, especially since the R1T has a pan-flat bottom with no protuberances.

Front and rear suspension travel worked out to 10.2 and 10.6 inches, respectively. That’s quite strong, but the Hummer EV, Ford F-150 Raptor and Ram 1500 TRX offer considerably more because they have between 5 and 6 inches of extra track and body width. Wide-track suspensions make it easier to engineer more wheel travel, but such wide-bodied trucks wouldn’t have fit on this trail (or in many parking spots). The Rivian may have fit, but I had to ease by a few trees at times, and later had to fold in the mirrors to get through a twisting, articulated and steep-walled luge section without breaking them off.

The R1T has no stabilizer bars in the traditional sense. It instead uses a hydraulically interconnected set of adaptive dampers that’s an evolution of a concept I first saw on the McLaren MP4-12C. The Electro-Hydraulic Roll Control system’s left and right dampers are cross-linked rebound-to-compression and compression-to-rebound, while the fronts and rears are connected like-to-like. There are accumulators and valves at strategic points, and the system can stiffen to varying degrees to flatten cornering according to your mode selection, go limp so the suspension can flex to its maximum extent off-road, or offer no roll resistance when driving straight to minimize head toss.



Indeed the R1T does have a number of driving modes. At a high level, there are five self-explanatory ones: All-Purpose, Sport, Conserve, Off-Road and Towing. Among these, Sport has a Launch sub-mode wherein the estimated 3.0-second 0-60 mph acceleration time resides. Off-Road has four subcategories: Auto, Rock Crawl, Rally and Drift. Each of what amounts to nine modes can have a different adaptive damping map, roll stiffness strategy and accelerator sensitivity, and most offer different default and optional height settings from among the five drivable choices: Max, High, Standard, Low, Lowest.

It’d take a Powerpoint presentation to sort through the permutations, so I’ll summarize:

• All-Purpose is the default mode that starts in Standard and drops to Low at freeway speeds to reduce drag.
• Conserve offers more efficiency by prioritizing the front motors, dropping to Lowest mode while cruising and dialing the AC back.
• Sport stiffens everything and also drops to Lowest at highway speeds.
• Off-Road Auto and Rock Crawl start in High and offer Max as an option, but Rock Crawl offers maximum articulation.
• Off-Road Rally and Drift start at Standard and offer High as an option, but Drift biases torque to the rear and permits more speed differential between front and rear axles.

Towing is the one mode I couldn’t play with. I didn’t have a trailer, and this mode self-selects (and deactivates the rear parking sensors) when you plug one in. Towing offers load-leveling but it does not lower at cruising speed — presumably to maintain the preload of your load-equalizing hitch (recommended if you’re towing over 5,000 pounds). The R1T will automatically detect electric trailer brakes and bring up a screen where you can set the gain of the built-in trailer brake controller, but there are no physical pinchers to manually engage the brakes as you test your gain setting. You do that by pressing the thumb-wheel on the right-hand spoke of the steering wheel. That's not the only atypical interior control one has to get used to.



I got out of step with the R1T’s cockpit when I first adjusted the mirrors and steering. You make adjustments with a pair of “multi-functional thumb controls” on the steering wheel spokes, but only after selecting the driver profile menu on the touchscreen and choosing mirror or steering column mode. Adjustments are saved to your driver profile, and the steering/mirror adjustment screen does pop up if you tweak your seat controls, but it’s a cumbersome way to make casual adjustments every time you shift position. The same thumb controls are reused for a wide variety of other situational tasks, too. This approach, similar to that of Tesla, is not our favorite.

The situation elsewhere in the cabin is much better. The interior is generally well-crafted and attractive to look at, and controls such as the thumb buttons are nicely made and give good haptic feedback. There are also real stalks. Logical wiper and headlight controls reside on the left-hand turn-signal stalk. Shifter and adaptive cruise engagement controls are built into the right-hand stalk.

The sizable 16-inch landscape touchscreen has a good deal of shortcut buttons along its perimeter, and drive mode selections are easy to make. But everything is touchscreen-based, with more than a few controls two or three levels down. Two of these came up on the trail: The mirror folding switch was nowhere near the mirror adjustment menu, and the HVAC system’s recirc button was an unwelcome extra layer deep when I was suddenly enveloped by dust.



I have similar mixed feelings about the infotainment system, mainly because of limited input choices at launch. The wonderful 1,200-watt, 18-speaker Elevation by Meridian premium audio system sounds outstanding, and you can readily log into your Tune-In or Spotify streaming accounts if you have them. AM/FM and HD radio are available, too. But there’s no Sirius XM if you’re away from cell service, which isn't uncommon while off-roading, and the only way to bring your smartphone into the mix is via Bluetooth streaming audio. Like Tesla products, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are not supported, and the USB-C ports around the cabin are power-only. Rivian says this was done to maintain complete control of the look and feel of the immersive touchscreen ecosystem, but I think this will tempt drivers to diddle with their phone screens and suction-cup them to a nearby window because they can’t interface with that immersive touchscreen ecosystem.

As for advanced driving systems, Rivian’s approach is a good one. First off, the name itself is Driver+, which correctly implies the driver remains a necessary part of the equation. Furthermore, the top level system that combines adaptive cruise control with active lane centering is modestly called Highway Assist, and it only works on limited-access highways that meet certain criteria. It also includes safeguards such as a capacitive touch steering wheel that makes it hard to fake out the 15-second steering torque timer with a counterweight, as well as driver monitoring sensors that may enable even more capability after future OTA updates are released. The usual accident avoidance and mitigation systems are included, too: forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking, lane-keeping assist, and blind-spot and rear-cross-traffic warning.



We mustn’t forget about the truck part, and here the R1T goes its own way in a very good way. Its stubby 217.1-inch length is nearly 16 inches shorter than an F-150 Lightning, and its 135.9-inch wheelbase is nearly 10 inches shorter than the Ford's. This combination adds up to a tight turning radius, short front and rear overhangs, and healthy approach, departure and breakover angles. The downside here is the bed is only 54 inches long, which is a half-foot shorter than a short-bed Tacoma’s. But Rivian offers numerous offsetting advantages.

It’s a deep composite bed with a roll-top tonneau cover that locks along with the tailgate when you lock the truck. The bed floor opens to nearly 7 feet long (83.6 inches) with the gooseneck-hinged tailgate dropped open, and there’s a sturdy folding flap that neatly bridges the hinge gap. The front trunk provides another 11 cubic feet of dry, lockable space, and Rivian’s revolutionary truck-spanning “Gear Tunnel” is good for an additional 11.6 cubic feet of the same. The bed floor also opens up to reveal a deep well big enough for the optional full-sized matching 34-inch spare wheel and tire, but that does beg the question of how one is supposed to muscle something that must weigh some 80 pounds up and out of there.

The bed has lighting, power outlets and clip-in attachments for well-engineered factory crossbars. Those of us who air down for off-roading will appreciate the standard air compressor built into the inner wall, and there’s a long hose with a clamp-on filler. Plug one end into the bed fitting and clamp the other to a tire’s fill valve, select the pressure on the screen and hit the Play button. It takes a few minutes per tire, and you have to work your way around the truck, but this is an awesome factory feature. Just below the Play button there are sockets for Gear Guard cables you can loop around cargo or a bike frame. If someone tugs on a cable while the truck is locked, the interior screen lights up with the cartoon shown below to scare them off as the bed-view camera begins to record video.



My drive was too short to verify the 314-mile range that is associated with the R1T’s 135 kilowatt-hour Large Pack battery, but Rivian does not hide the fact that the 34-inch all-terrain tire option will trim that by 10-15%. The rating was made with the standard 21-inch tires in All-Purpose mode and with regen set to the middle Standard setting. The charge cord that comes with the truck has swappable 120V household and 240V NEMA 14-50 ends, and with the latter can draw as much as 7.2 kW through a 32A or higher circuit. The truck’s onboard charger can accommodate 240V flows of up to 11.6 kW if your Level-2 home equipment is sized to take full advantage, and the maximum sustained intake rate at a suitable DC Fast charger is said to be north of 200 kW.

The truck I drove was an Adventure Package, which starts at $73,000. The only other choice is the Explore Package for $67,500. Both come standard with the Large Pack battery, and the bigger Max Pack with an unconfirmed range of 400-plus miles is a $10,000 option. The Pirelli 34-inch all terrain tires are an $1,800 upgrade, but they’ll set you back $3,500 if you want gloss black wheels. Curiously, a full-size matching spare costs $800 either way. An Off-Road Upgrade consisting of reinforced underbody panels and tow hooks costs $2,000, and from there we get into accessories like crossbars, rack accessories for the crossbars, a rooftop tent, a fully-equipped slide out electric kitchen and other miscellany you can peruse on the Rivian website.

Do I wish things were different in terms of certain control and infotainment realities? Sure. But those are the type of things that can evolve for the better as the inevitable OTA updates get pushed out. Overall, it's hard not to be excited about the Rivian R1T's fundamentals after spending a long day pushing it on all kinds of terrain. It’s smartly designed, right-sized and cleverly packaged. It delivers secure performance on the pavement, and effortless capability in challenging off-road conditions. It would obviously be good to sample one on roads and trails that I’m more familiar with, but at this point the R1T has me utterly convinced that electric off-roading is the way to go.

Anyone who follows Rivian knows it once created a sports car prototype back in the early 2010s. Sometimes, this prototype gets back on the news as if Rivian was willing to manufacture it. According to RJ Scaringe, that will not be the case. The Rivian founder told investors why it was created and abandoned. More than that, he explains how the company found its unique way “to have impact.”

Scaringe did that in a letter included in a Form S-1. This document was presented to the U.S. SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) for Rivian to pursue its IPO (initial public offering). Apart from the letter, Rivian also presented its investments in R&D (research and development) and pre-orders in that document.

The Rivian founder started his text by stating how he was in love with vehicles, restoring cars in his neighbor’s garage, and having automobile parts all over his place. At the same time, he realized that the object of that passion was not sustainable.

Loving the outdoors (which gives us a hint on why Rivian focused on SUVs and trucks), Scaringe felt conflicted at the same time that he perceived a business opportunity. He then said that he conceived Rivian “to drive our transportation system toward a future state that was sustainable and carbon neutral.” After he managed to create a team, they realized the sports car prototype would not help the company achieve this goal.


Curiously, that’s precisely the path that Tesla and multiple other companies before it have followed to get started. The idea they followed was to create exclusive sports cars with hefty price tags that helped them fund themselves to develop and sell less expensive products with higher sales volumes. For Rivian, that was not good enough to “maximize impact.”

At the same time it conceived the R1T and the R1S“to demonstrate how a clean sheet, technology-focused vehicle could eliminate long-accepted compromises,” it also focused on fleet-based mobility. Scaringe said his team felt the need to “shift some of the world’s mobility needs to non-personally owned fleets.” This is what led Rivian to realize it was necessary to redefine “the logistics and last-mile commercial vehicle space.”

It was this decision that put Rivian in contact with Amazon, one of its most prominent investors. In his letter, Scaringe also revealed that the delivery van is just part of the deal. Rivian’s “end-to-end fleet management platform” may be as crucial as the hardware. According to Scaringe, it “advances the operations and economics for running centrally managed fleets.” Unfortunately, the executive did not provide more information about that in his letter.


Regardless, it was enough for Amazon to invest $700 million in Rivian in 2019 and a lot more ever since. Apart from benefitting from this fleet management platform, Amazon probably wants a piece of future Rivian businesses in the area. Scaringe said that the deal with the internet giant allows Rivian “to pursue a range of other sizes, use cases, and markets.” In other words, the delivery van is just the beginning.

The Rivian founder then credited his team as the company’s most valuable asset. Although that looks like HR directors’ jargon, Scaringe added an element that makes it more credible: his team’s ability to “show up for hard discussions” and how they “react to seemingly unsolvable and complex problems.” That has created a culture that is what Scaringe declared to value the most, which may play a role in attracting talent. Tesla is even suing Rivian for that.

If you want to understand how Rivian managed to raise $10.5 billion before it even delivered any vehicles, reading Scaringe’s letter will be enlightening. It does not reveal all, but it shows that there are more ways to start a car company than we previously thought – and they may work just fine.

On September 14, Rivian started production of its R1T electric pickup truck and began deliveries to early reservation holders shortly after.

We’ve seen an increasing number of social media posts from customers taking delivery of their R1Ts recently, but how many vehicles has Rivian delivered so far?

Well, the answer comes from the company itself in a new document filed with the SEC on October 22. Amendment No. 1 to the S-1 reveals that Rivian hasn’t exactly begun full-scale production of its all-electric pickup.

From page 1 of the document, in the “Prospectus Summary” chapter, we learn that Rivian has built a total of just 56 R1Ts as of October 22—i.e., in the first five weeks of production.

“In the consumer market, we launched the R1 platform with our first-generation consumer vehicle, the R1T, a two-row five-passenger pickup truck, and began making customer deliveries in September 2021. As of September 30, 2021, we produced 12 R1Ts and delivered 11 R1Ts, and as of October 22, 2021, we produced 56 R1Ts and delivered 42 R1Ts.”

This clearly shows that Rivian is taking its time with production, with the EV startup making an average of less than two vehicles per day. Additionally, as pointed out on Rivian Forums, the fact that it has delivered only 42 vehicles so far makes it unsurprising that most of them are going to company employees.

While no one expects a startup to built thousands of vehicles during the first month of production, two units a day is disappointing. The question is how quickly will Rivian manage to accelerate manufacturing given that the company had approximately 48,000 R1T and R1S preorders to honor as of September 30, 2021.

At the current rate of two vehicles a day, Rivian may run out of money long before it can deliver all 48,000 orders. Could the reason for the R1T’s slow production ramp be that Rivian is prioritizing the production of electric delivery vans for Amazon?

That is unlikely because Rivian does not cite any production numbers for the electric van in this latest SEC filing. According to previous statements, the company will begin volume production of the 500 Van and 700 Van in December, when it also plans to start making the R1S SUV.