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Rivian R1T First Drive reviews

khockey02

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Its aggressively ugly. But there is some very clever and innovative tech in it.

No differentials. It has a 200 hp electric motor at each wheel. So it can do things with its 4wd system that are unimaginable with any other kind of system.

You could have a simulated "locked" axle system by turning every wheel at the same speed.

More interestingly, you could have a system that only gives power to weighted wheels and doesn't even bother turning wheels that are in the air.

On the road, or at high speed in the dirt, you can drive the outside wheels harder around a turn to enhance stability and performance.

Its a HUGE advantage in almost every driving situation and its limitations are pretty much only subject to the imagination of the software people in how they want to use it.

And its fast. Enough said on that. Reaching 60 mph in less than HALF the time it takes a Gladiator.

Ugly but cool.
I was really excited by the independent 4 wheel drivetrain, but there are several points in these review videos where it looks like the motor with traction is torque limited. Iā€™ll try to grab a time stamp (hereā€™s another), but if you watch any of these videos long enough youā€™ll see a situation where it lifts a wheel and 2-3 wheels are slipping but the last wheel doesnā€™t have enough juice to power over the obstacle. Each of these situations is remedied by a little bump or some repositioning, but it makes you wonder if the old school locked diff still has some merit in these next gen ā€œoff-roadersā€.
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roth_nj

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I was really excited by the independent 4 wheel drivetrain, but there are several points in these review videos where it looks like the motor with traction is torque limited. Iā€™ll try to grab a time stamp (hereā€™s another), but if you watch any of these videos long enough youā€™ll see a situation where it lifts a wheel and 2-3 wheels are slipping but the last wheel doesnā€™t have enough juice to power over the obstacle. Each of these situations is remedied by a little bump or some repositioning, but it makes you wonder if the old school locked diff still has some merit in these next gen ā€œoff-roadersā€.
Thatā€™s all softwar/programmingā€¦ also the overall tone of all the reviews has been mechanically everything couldnā€™t be any better but the UI/programming is ā€œgood enoughā€ but needs to be addressed. Seems like they want to get them rolling and are going to address things like that with future OTAs.
 

iammacey

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Something like this had come to my mind too. Your "fill up" is pulling into an authorized station that lifts and just swaps your battery to a full charged one. Say 15min max. and you're back on the road.

But, seems like the tech to speed up charging is pushing forward fast enough this wouldn't be needed. And no idea what kind of risk this idea would introduce.
Tesla did this in 2014. They opened one swap location and could change a battery in 3 minutes. They had every intention of opening more but found very few customers opted to do it. Preferring to use the Supercharger network as it came online.

There is a Chinese company, Nio, that says they have 143 locations that offer battery swaps and they have done 500,000 of them.

Range is clearly being worked from a number of angles. Charging, batteries, battery swapping - but we also have to solve the power grid issues nationally.

Looks are subjective. I hate the Cybertruck and thought it was a joke. Plenty of people seem to love it. The F150 is an F150 and has some excellent features. It's the EV that has my dad interested. The Rivian looks nice to me. Exterior styling is pretty conservative with the exception of the front end, and I don't mind the headlights. Interior styling is very modern. I don't get into the sustainability conversation and vegan interior. If it's nice, it's nice.

I'll end up with Ineos Grenadier before I end up with an EV though. And keep my fingers crossed that Porsche, or someone, creates a synthetic fuel that keeps ICE vehicles around.
 

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I've been following Rivian for a couple years now and am excited they are actually bringing this into production. I really like the front end looks and the interior looks very nice. I figure in 2 years when my 36 month loan is finished I will be buying either one of these, or a Lightning, or possibly a Tesla. There might be some really good gains with solid state batteries, but we will see. I will keep the Gladiator of course, but I do want to see where the battery trucks are at.
 

mike921921

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Effiminate, anime, massively un-attractive front end. I can see a great future for aftermarket - should they survive.
 

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The front is just butt-ugly!
 

Tackett1980

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I understand the need and place for electric vehicles.

I do NOT understand why everyone has to make them all butt ugly.

why canā€™t it have all these features and lookā€¦normal?
 

yoda13

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The truck, to my way of thinking, is very unattractive. I wouldnā€™t buy one. The F150 is the only all electric Iā€™d contemplate. I wonā€™t buy one until I have too. Hopefully by then Jeep will have something out. I DO like that they are making this trail worthy and actually putting it out there. I hate the way all the EVs look, except what Ford is putting out.
 

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InvertedLogic

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I was really excited by the independent 4 wheel drivetrain, but there are several points in these review videos where it looks like the motor with traction is torque limited. Iā€™ll try to grab a time stamp (hereā€™s another), but if you watch any of these videos long enough youā€™ll see a situation where it lifts a wheel and 2-3 wheels are slipping but the last wheel doesnā€™t have enough juice to power over the obstacle. Each of these situations is remedied by a little bump or some repositioning, but it makes you wonder if the old school locked diff still has some merit in these next gen ā€œoff-roadersā€.
That's pretty disappointing to be honest. I'm wondering if its a software limitation, or if the motors can't put out enough torque in that instance. It's easy to discount the torque at the wheel of an ICE truck with the torque multiplication of the trans*tcase*axle ratio. When you multiply those together, you get some super high torque at the wheel!
 

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In 4 to 5 years these will have 1000+ mile ranges and decreases in price due to competition... ill be all over it. The tech and innovation is too great to ignore.
If they get the charge times down to 10 minutes or less, you wonā€™t need as long of a range, 310 miles is ok but I would think that a 600 mile range would be the goal.
 

khockey02

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That's pretty disappointing to be honest. I'm wondering if its a software limitation, or if the motors can't put out enough torque in that instance. It's easy to discount the torque at the wheel of an ICE truck with the torque multiplication of the trans*tcase*axle ratio. When you multiply those together, you get some super high torque at the wheel!
My thoughts exactly. With no low range this may be more than software can fix. Itā€™s basically 1/4 of the vehicle combined torque at low rpm which electric motors donā€™t particularly like vsā€”potentiallyā€”1/2 Per wheel (locked) with torque multiplication on current rigs. Either way Iā€™ll withhold judgement until I get the chance to try it for myself. šŸ˜‰
 

DBravo

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Interesting reads that detail R1T's off-roading capability....Personally I don't care for the uni-body design, but I think Rivian will be huge in a few years....

https://www.rivianforums.com/forum/...opnik-inside-evs-kbb-roadshow-etc.2254/unread
They used first build Rivian's (pre-release) in Long Way Up (Ewan McGregorr and Charley Boorman https://tv.apple.com/us/show/long-w...tnsubkw=108368349575__8dcB2vbT_&mttnsubplmnt=)
along with pre-production concept build electric Harley Davidson's. Rivian donated and installed charging stations all the way up through South America and Mexico to L.A. Makes them pretty cool in my book.
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