Skip The Cybertruck: 2024 Rivian R1T Evaluate

It’s December 2023 and it’s laborious to be heard above the din of Cybertruck chatter nonetheless I’ll give it a strive.

I’ve now driven the Rivian R1S SUV and R1T pickup — each and every for a week. This previous week it changed into as soon as the 2024 R1T.

Handle the Tesla Cybertruck, it’s a pickup. And love the Cybertruck it’s designed with off-street toughness. And love the Cybertruck — no lower than the sizzling iteration — it’s costly.

But, alas, it’s now now not a Cybertruck. Some would advise it doesn’t contain the inviting, steely “funky edge” (by intention of WSJ) of the Cybertruck. Let me push help and advise that Rivian has an supreme edge. I desire the R1T. Plus the incontrovertible truth that that you just should to genuinely procure one. No waiting in line for a year or more.

What I love most about the R1T (the R1S as successfully) is the marriage of beauty and beast. A feeling that that you just should to operate the relaxation and coast anyplace smartly-liked.

So, I set the R1T to the take a look at. Now not the final take a look at (glimpse this YouTube video for that) nonetheless I did take it deep into the Mojave Desert in California to a gaggle of abode where whilst you procure stuck you’re out of luck — as in no cell signal and no nearby human civilization.

But first some more mundane, nonetheless considerable, things about the pickup.

(Display: what follows is a transient first-take review — now now not a comprehensive review — and touches on the facets of the R1T that I outmoded essentially the most.)

Motorway abet: The R1T is crammed with the roughly skills that you just should to take a look at in an costly electrical automobile, now now not now not like a Tesla Mannequin Y (which I’ve additionally driven widely).

Motorway Help is a lot love Tesla’s Autopilot. The automobile will roughly force itself on predominant highways. It’s now now not supreme (nor is Tesla’s Autopilot) nonetheless I realized it precious on the long time out to the Mojave Desert where long, limitless, ruler-edge straight highways can take a look at your alertness.

Motorway Help doesn’t always work whilst you happen to desire to contain it to. It errs on the facet of caution. If it faces a diagram back it doesn’t acknowledge it shuts down straight away and makes you are taking help retain watch over.

Now and then, this could waft to the best facet of the lane, i.e., doesn’t heart entirely, and that could procure dicey whilst you happen to’re passing a mammoth truck. I had to shut it down manually a few times resulting from of this.

Mercurial: for a 7,000 pound automobile it’s like a flash. Even as you need quick torque, no diagram back. It’s now now not somewhat as like a flash as a dual-motor Mannequin Y nonetheless, over again, for a heavy truck the torque is terrifying. Faster than a Mustang Shelby GT500. It doesn’t afflict that I had the quad-motor mannequin (which puts the cost reach $90,000). I did now now not procure to verify the much less dear dual-motor variantwhich starts at around $74,000 and is new this year.

Charging: whilst you happen to personal an EV (love I operate), you hasty learn to “always be charging.” No, it’s now now not love the principle generation of EVs such because the 80-mile-vary Chevy Spark EV (which I drove for six months help in 2017) where you dwell with a fixed creeping fright of the auto death on the toll road.

However the ABC rule restful applies. With the third generation of EVs it’s the fright of now now not having entry to a public charger. Within the Mojave Desert that’s real. On top of that, there’s the fright that some charging areas will likely be unreliable or entirely broken. (In Santa Clarita, Calif., where I usually ticket, it’s a crapshoot if a public CCS like a flash charger will work or now now not.)

Fortuitously, the Electrify The United States like a flash charging station within the itsy-bitsy metropolis of Mojave, Calif. did work. And it changed into as soon as like a flash. The R1T showed top charging charges above 40o mi/hr. And I bought a paunchy ticket in slightly over half-hour — appropriate over 300 miles from a starting up point of about 50 miles.

(As an apart, charging next to me changed into as soon as the same R1T. The owner changed into as soon as hauling a wide trailer. The owner knowledgeable me that the R1T had no diagram back hauling around mountainous loads.)

Off-street: this is what impressed me essentially the most. In my misspent early life, I spent a disproportionate quantity of my summer vacations at my family’s summer condominium in Nantucket, Mass. using a Jeep Wrangler on very gentle sand. (Definite parts of the island are handiest accessible by 4wd automobile.) And I suggest gentle and deep. The Mojave Desert sand, in spots, is similar.

The R1T plowed through gentle sand love a sizzling knife through butter. That gave me the confidence to coast deeper into the barren station and under no instances peril about getting stuck. So, I spent the relaxation of the day using into the a long way-off barren station (glimpse photos at backside). Up steep inclines and each and every on occasion at upsetting angles. And a total lot gentle sand. But I changed into as soon as under no instances anxious. And the R1T emerged at the pause of the day unscathed no topic very now now not easy off-street instances in some areas.

Abstract: what Rivian has done with its first crack at an electrical automobile is nothing making an strive a miracle. Even as you force it, you genuinely feel that it’s screwed together successfully. It’s light inside the cabin and the suspension handles bumpy, badly maintained paved roads (Los Angeles has no shortage of these) with aplomb. Briefly, a successfully-constructed, high-quality automobile. I highly counsel it based entirely on my skills above.

There’s one excessive diagram back: ticket. Supreme a minute minority of American automobile traders can afford a $75,000 – $90,000 automobile. That makes it an elitist automobile accessible handiest to affluent People. That looks to be in war with what Rivian purports to aspire to: “We’re constructing for a future that involves all people.” (Even supposing I suspect that that you just should to intention it work whilst you’re involving to intention excessive sacrifices or take on debt or an costly lease.)

The lower-ticket R2 platform is due in 2026. That’s a truly long time to again for an much less dear Rivian. I’m hoping that the CEO RJ Scaringe under guarantees and over delivers on this just.

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Notes: Full specs of the R1T I drove: Red Canyon, Quad Motor, Mountainous Pack R1T with Dim Mountain Interior and 22″ Dark Sport Wheels.