Rivian R1T Electric Truck Off Road Capability with Electric Power

The burbling of a nearby creek. The whisper of wind in the leaves. Aside from the crush of rock under tires, these are not the sounds typically heard from inside a typical off-road vehicle. The 2022 Rivian R1T electric pickup truck is anything but typical, and when its on pavement firing from 0-60 mph in 3.0 seconds, another sound fills the cabin: howls of joy.

The first vehicle from the American electric car maker is also the first electric pickup truck to market, beating out the forthcoming 2022 GMC Hummer EV and 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning, not to mention the Tesla Cybertruck chimera.

Sized between a full-size and mid-size pickup, the R1Ts performance dynamics, 11,000-lb towing capacity, lack of tailpipe emissions, cutting-edge technology, clever cargo utility, and adventuring accessories usher in the next era of what the classic American pickup truck can be.

Behind the wheel of a 2022 R1T Launch Edition with the Off-road package, I climbed up to 12,000 feet on a deeply rutted path to the Rocky Mountain ridges above Breckenridge, Colorado. To get there, I wound up and down twisty mountain roads with 6% grades, runaway truck ramps, and sheer shoulder drop-offs. Between its uncompromising off-road capability and its peerless pickup truck performance on pavement, the R1T is the most versatile vehicle Ive ever driven.

2022 Rivian R1T

2022 Rivian R1T

2022 Rivian R1T

2022 Rivian R1T

All-Purpose

The R1T has five drive modesAll-Purpose, Sport, Offroad, Conserve, and Towingwith nearly 50 different drive settings for the ride height, adaptive dampers, regen braking, and stability control. The default All-Purpose, or auto mode, straddles the middle of all these settings, and can be overridden by the driving conditions or by the drivers discretion.

Leave it alone and never bother with the 15.6-inch touchscreen that houses everything from the drive and suspension settings to the vent directions of the climate control. The lack of buttons and dials could frustrate some people migrating from traditional pickups or SUVs, but the clean dash design trimmed in ash wood makes for one of the warmest, most inviting cabins on the market.

But all the various settings beg to be played with for the adventuring sort targeted by Rivian. The adventuring starts with a massive 135-kwh battery pack that powers four independent motors with a drive unit on each axle, and two motors per drive unit controlling either half shaft. An EPA-rated range of 314 miles kicks off the three trims available at launch, but Rivian plans a larger battery pack due in 2022 that will provide a range of 400 miles for $10,000 more than the $67,500 base Explore edition.

2022 Rivian R1T

The motors work independently to make 415 hp and 413 lb-ft of torque for the front axle, and 420 hp and 495 lb-ft for the rear axle; together, the system churns out more than 800 hp and 900 lb-ft of torque. The quad motor set up enables torque vectoring at each corner of the truck to maximize grip on pavement and climb over off-road obstacles at low speeds.

The five different suspension heights and drive modes give the R1T a variability unmatched by other vehicles. Not every height is available with every drive mode, and most of them can go one notch above or below the standard ground clearance of 11.5 inches. The air suspension travels 6.5 inches, topping out at 14.4 inches in Offroad mode, and bottoming at 7.9 inches when parked.

My tester was a Launch Edition model trimmed out similarly to the Adventure trim that costs $73,000. It had the Off-road package that added front tow hooks, a reinforced underbody shield, and 20-inch wheels wrapped in 34-inch Pirelli Scorpion all-terrain tires to bring the price to $76,800 before EV incentives. Without the package, the R1T comes with 21-inch wheels with 33-inch Pirelli all-season tires, though 22-inch wheels with Pirelli performance tires are an option.

Even with the off-road tires, the R1T twisted through hairpin turns with agility and composure, clambered up deeply rutted rock trails, accelerated quicker than most sports cars, and did it all in near silence. Sport mode only made it better.

2022 Rivian R1T

Sport

Rivian claims a 0-60 mph time of 3.0 seconds, and I have every reason to believe it. Yet, the truck didnt throw me back in my seat or hug corners like an electric performance sedan. As much as Rivian defies physics with the R1T, it cant overcome all the limitations of its height and curb weight, estimated to be a whopping 6,900 lb, similar to many heavy duty pickup trucks. But no pickup, from the Ford F-150 Raptor to the Ram TRX to anything by Hennessey, has this kind of pick up.

Even Einstein would marvel at how well the R1T accelerates and handles. A big reason for this, perhaps more so than the multitude of suspension and ride quality settings, is that its 135-kwh battery pack of 7,776 small 2170-format Samsung SDI cells sits at the bottom of the truck between the axles for a relatively low center of gravity.

Above 50 mph, the suspension automatically lowers to 10.1 inches for better aero and efficiency, and that is also the standard ride height for Sport mode. The closest the R1T gets to the road while driving is 9.5 inches in Sport mode.

Sport mode utilizes more front axle torque and adjusts the damper setting from Soft to Stiffer that, along with the lowered ride height, lets it better hug the road.

That doesnt mean its the optimal setting. For straight-line driving, the Stiffer damping setting and stability control set to On might be best to harness all that instantaneous linear torque. But more varied terrain, like when rotating the truck, requires a different kind of modulation.

Max Koff, Rivians Director of Vehicle Dynamics, said that situation deserved Soft damping, Max regen braking, and Reduced stability control; he called it the chefs kiss of engineering sweet spots. With the rear of the truck sliding out and Koff snapping it back in line, all while talking calmly about the R1Ts dynamics as if there werent a 500-foot death plunge beyond a wheel, it all made perfect sense.

2022 Rivian R1T

Climbing up and down the same grade that Koff demonstrated allowed me to play with the settings and switch the damping to Stiffer. It jounced more on unsteady pavement, but was far from harsh. Passing slower vehicles up slope, which seemed to be every vehicle, came easy with the instantaneous torque of the R1T.

The various settings allow for far more modulation than you might ever use, but its there if you want it. One of the few drive systems to remain fixed is the electronically assisted steering. The suspension changes might make it seem like it adds steering heft, but the ratio remains the same. On-center feel is good, and the steering response is never too loose or too firm, though drivers used to performance cars might want more resistance and road feel.

The key reason the R1T can handle sharp turns with such agility is because Rivian employs a hydraulic control system instead of anti-roll bars that are linked front to rear and side to side to stiffen the chassis. Like what McLaren uses on its supercars, Rivian runs two fluid lines between the front wheels, then a T line runs to the back and connects the rear wheels. When you turn hard to the right and the body rolls to the left, the fluid limits the compression on the left side to even it out and balance lateral motion. In essence, the two lines at either axle fight each other for dominance. The system enhances on-road performance and off-road comfort, and lets the air suspension, double front wishbones, and adaptive dampers handle the vertical load.

2022 Rivian R1T

Offroad

The Offroad setting is the most complex of the five main drive modes, with four sub-modes that automatically adjust the stability control and suspension settings in Auto, Rock Crawl, Rally, and Drift modes. For all the composure and blistering acceleration on pavement, the off-road capabilities of the R1T are as impressive.

For off-road intenders, whether its old mining roads or slickrock in Moab, consider the Off-Road package. Instead of 21- or 22-inch wheels, it comes with 20-inch wheels wrapped in 34-inch Pirelli Scorpion 275/65/R20 all-terrain tires. (Pro tip: To change a tire, set the suspension to max height in Offroad mode, then find Tire Change mode in the touchscreen under the Settings wheel. Then crank the jack.) The underbody shield that protects the battery pack gets reinforced with a layer of steel, carbon fiber, and aluminum honeycomb for energy absorption. Rivian said the off-road testing included dropping the vehicle 15 inches on a pointed rock with no battery degradation, and Koff assured us of many hours of bashing.

Thats one of the compelling traits about Rivian: Like founder and CEO R.J. Scaringe, Koff and the other engineers I spoke with are rabid car enthusiasts with ongoing projects in their personal garages worthy of their peers admiration or mockery, and oftentimes both. The collaborative, collegial atmosphere produced a truck engineered with benchmarks targeting the Porsche Cayenne Turbo on the road, the comfort and ride quality of a Land Rover Discovery, and the off-road chops of a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon and Ford F-150 Raptor.

In Auto, the low center of gravity, wide track, and individual wheel travel makes for balanced clambering even at a lateral pitch of about 20 degrees in our testing. On a chilly 27-degree morning at an elevation above 10,000 feet, a front wheel slipped on ice and rock, but I applied more throttle so the three other wheels pushed the truck through. Instead of a locker, the four-wheel-drive system limits torque from the motor on the slipping wheel. In Drift mode, the system allows for more wheel slip, but in Rock Crawl mode, theres much quicker modulation of torque between the motors. I didnt have the wide open spaces to test Drift mode. Next time.