Motor Trend Review: The 2022 Rivian R1T Is the Most Remarkable Pickup We’ve Ever Driven

[flabyboy]

Doubt all you want… It is the truth. It doesn’t bother me if you choose to live in ignorance. It also doesn’t matter what you “doubt”. It doesn’t change the fact. I will take my superior visibility. Lately it has been raining almost every day from one storm or another. RainX lasts quite a while but ceramic for much longer. It works and makes my life easier.

ceramic is a beautiful thing

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[Ronaldinho]

Gear tunnel is looking really nice without the shuttle. Now I'm wondering if I want the shuttle or not. Just don't know how much space the shuttle would take up. I asked CS and they didn't have the information, and of course said they will when production starts. ugh

Just for a little additional color around this, CS told me last month that the tunnel shuttle can be purchased after delivery (no mention of any potential cost increase). That was enough for me to forego it and see how the shuttleless life feels.

 

[RWerksman]

I would argue the demographics of Motortrend probably match up with the price point of the vehicle. MKBHD and UnBox Therapy target audience originally was the folks who probably uber or dont even own vehicles.

All 10,000 subscribers and 10,000 pre-orders overlap.

I think it's waaaay more likely it's just a different philosophy, and if we're judging on exposure (what's the point of marketing if it's not exposure?) it's pretty mediocre compared to the closest competition.

Seriously, if you were building a truck, what would you want marketing to focus on? Two state-of-the-art influencers that deliver 10 Million eyes on their videos or one has-been magazine that delivers 1/20th of that?

But we’re just trying to get Launch vehicles out…you let the cat out of the bag too early and let everyone know about this truck and orders can’t be fulfilled for several years…what’s the point? It’s a niche vehicle…doesn’t need to be blasted out to the masses until the more affordable models exist. We know Rivian likes to operate at a slow burn until ramp up to max capacity.

100% disagree.

If I were starting a company and you gave me the choice between a small order backlog and large one, I'd want the bigger one every single time. Marketing is there to get eyes on your product. Sales and the website is there to get orders. Production is there to deliver on those orders.

 

[electruck]

https://www.youtube.com/user/MotorTrend/videos
One can peruse the view counts on Youtube and see that Motor Trend doesn't generally get a huge number of views.

MT likely doesn't get a huge number of viewers on youtube because they host their own video feeds for their web site (directly or via CDN). Consequently, the youtube counter doesn't reflect the number of visitors viewing directly from motortrend.com and is likely a gross underestimate of the total number of views.

 

[Zoidz]

I agree that never is a bit strong, but I can say I rarely need wipers with RainX.

Agree. I use RainX and I don't feel the need to use my wipers maybe 75% of the time. Visibility is fine.

 

[Zoidz]

But is anyone else disappointed in the view count of the MotorTrend review? Just 50k views - and video has been up for more than a day now. Not sure if this says more about the MotorTrend video or the R1T.

Not disappointed at all. There are too many unknowns to make any assumptions or conclusions about the number of views.
1. It's widely assumed that there are 50K plus preorders. But factually, as far as I know, nobody really knows how many there are except Rivian. Could be 25K for all we know.
2. After 1 day, how would people know the MotorTrend review even exists, unless they are active on a Rivian forum or follow MotorTrend? I found out about it via this forum. It has 3,000 registered members, probably less than half are active daily.
3. This forum represent the rabid Rivian fans. I'm sure there are plenty of people with pre-orders that are not fanatical about finding and devouring every piece of Rivian information.

If you consider the hard numbers and the limited ways how people might find out about the video, 50K might be pretty good after one day for an unreleased $80K niche market vehicle.

 

[Zoidz]

I am not an expert, but I suspect the most elegant way this can be achieved is by using different motors in the front and rear... The front motors can be permanent magnet reluctance motors that are highly efficient.
...
Rivian also could accomplish this with some gearing that engages/disengages a rear motor from the axles.

Perhaps, but it would complicate things quite a bit.

And it's definitely not how they do it. All four motors are identical DC motors. In an interview with Richard Farquhar, VP of Propulsion, he said:

"...we have four identical motors, left and right, front and rear. Every wheel has the exact same amount of torque and power available to it to maximize performance. ... With the fixed-ratio single-speed gearbox there is no need to change gears, no need for twin speeds. This maximizes efficiency in terms of losses from gear meshing while achieving all of our performance targets."

 

[crashmtb]

Perhaps, but it would complicate things quite a bit.

And it's definitely not how they do it. All four motors are identical DC motors. In an interview with Richard Farquhar, VP of Propulsion, he said:

"...we have four identical motors, left and right, front and rear. Every wheel has the exact same amount of torque and power available to it to maximize performance. ... With the fixed-ratio single-speed gearbox there is no need to change gears, no need for twin speeds. This maximizes efficiency in terms of losses from gear meshing while achieving all of our performance targets."

This is no longer the case - the rear motors are more powerful than the fronts.
unsure of other differences.

 

[AndroidAppBundle]

1. 56k pre-orders in mid-2020
2. Google alerts. InsideEV’s. Electrek. YouTube topic subscription. EV podcasts. I personally became aware of the video from scrolling on my Google feed (if you are an Android user, you know)
3. Maybe. How many pre-order holders give $1000 toward a purchase that can exceed 110k, wait years for the purchase, and not show enough excitement to muster up the 14 minutes to watch the first video review of the Rivian vehicles? These people exist, but how many

Considering how popular the Model S was, I would expect similar demand for the first large, practical, vehicle in one of the most popular vehicle classes in USA today. There should be people chomping at the bit - for an EV that can tow, carry, stow, haul, off-road all the things that a Tesla can’t. It is probably the first warning sign that F150 Lightning EV and Hummer EV are posing serious competition for buyers in this category. Not even bringing up Q4 Etron since you can’t even pre-order one yet. Even if I were an ID4 customer, I would be watching the R1T MotorTrend vehicle.

This lack of enthusiasm is not at all what I wanted to see. I know if I were RJ, I would be pissed.

Not disappointed at all. There are too many unknowns to make any assumptions or conclusions about the number of views.
1. It's widely assumed that there are 50K plus preorders. But factually, as far as I know, nobody really knows how many there are except Rivian. Could be 25K for all we know.
2. After 1 day, how would people know the MotorTrend review even exists, unless they are active on a Rivian forum or follow MotorTrend? I found out about it via this forum. It has 3,000 registered members, probably less than half are active daily.
3. This forum represent the rabid Rivian fans. I'm sure there are plenty of people with pre-orders that are not fanatical about finding and devouring every piece of Rivian information.

If you consider the hard numbers and the limited ways how people might find out about the video, 50K might be pretty good after one day for an unreleased $80K niche market vehicle.

 

[Zoidz]

This is no longer the case - the rear motors are more powerful than the fronts.
unsure of other differences.

Disagree. It can definitely be, and probably is, the exact same motors and inverters front and rear with different programming, especially since the VP said so. The whole purpose of an inverter is to control the horsepower & torque of a motor via the applied voltage waveform. The rear motors can develop more hp simply by sending more electrical power to them from the inverter. It's highly likey that through extensive testing, Rivian determined that the it was optimal to run front motors at a slightly lower maximum HP. Under hard acceleration, there will be a weight transfer to the rear wheels, allowing them to grip better, while the front wheels will have a bit less weight on them, and potentially slip more easily.

From an economy of scale manufacturing viewpoint, it also makes more sense that the motors are identical.

 

[crashmtb]

Disagree. It can definitely be, and probably is, the exact same motors and inverters front and rear with different programming, especially since the VP said so. The whole purpose of an inverter is to control the horsepower & torque of a motor via the applied voltage waveform. The rear motors can develop more hp simply by sending more electrical power to them from the inverter. It's highly likey that through extensive testing, Rivian determined that the it was optimal to run front motors at a slightly lower maximum HP. Under hard acceleration, there will be a weight transfer to the rear wheels, allowing them to grip better, while the front wheels will have a bit less weight on them, and potentially slip more easily.

From an economy of scale manufacturing viewpoint, it also makes more sense that the motors are identical.

I worded that poorly, I meant they do not have identical power/torque. I agree, it wouldn’t make sense to use physically different power units. Especially at this point.

 

[Zoidz]

1. 56k pre-orders in mid-2020

From what qualified Rivian source? A bunch of forum members assuming that the order number follows a decodable scheme/pattern isn't a qualified source. It's still nothing more than a guess, unless you can document several dozen pre-orders each and every day to prove a sequential, non-skipping pattern.

How many of those pre-orders have been cancelled or put on the back burner mentally by non-enthusiasts?

I'm not trying to be a dick, just a realist. IMO reality is that nobody except Rivian knows how many pre-orders there are, and Rivian has not released this information to my knowledge.

 

[SeaGeo]

Perhaps, but it would complicate things quite a bit.

And it's definitely not how they do it. All four motors are identical DC motors. In an interview with Richard Farquhar, VP of Propulsion, he said:

"...we have four identical motors, left and right, front and rear. Every wheel has the exact same amount of torque and power available to it to maximize performance. ... With the fixed-ratio single-speed gearbox there is no need to change gears, no need for twin speeds. This maximizes efficiency in terms of losses from gear meshing while achieving all of our performance targets."

Porsche also uses two permanent magnet motors and decouples the rear axle with a clutch as I understand it. Seems weird for Rivian to have a clutch between the rear wheels and motors, but maybe they decided the trade-off was worthwhile. It'd love to get more detail on the powertain.

 

[hola29]

At this point they cannot fulfill orders in a timely fashion...They have plenty of time to hype these cars in 2022 when people can actually buy them with a reasonable wait time. I am right at 2 years, so I don't need any more hype...just the vehicle

1. 56k pre-orders in mid-2020
2. Google alerts. InsideEV’s. Electrek. YouTube topic subscription. EV podcasts. I personally became aware of the video from scrolling on my Google feed (if you are an Android user, you know)
3. Maybe. How many pre-order holders give $1000 toward a purchase that can exceed 110k, wait years for the purchase, and not show enough excitement to muster up the 14 minutes to watch the first video review of the Rivian vehicles? These people exist, but how many

Considering how popular the Model S was, I would expect similar demand for the first large, practical, vehicle in one of the most popular vehicle classes in USA today. There should be people chomping at the bit - for an EV that can tow, carry, stow, haul, off-road all the things that a Tesla can’t. It is probably the first warning sign that F150 Lightning EV and Hummer EV are posing serious competition for buyers in this category. Not even bringing up Q4 Etron since you can’t even pre-order one yet. Even if I were an ID4 customer, I would be watching the R1T MotorTrend vehicle.

This lack of enthusiasm is not at all what I wanted to see. I know if I were RJ, I would be pissed.

 

[lg3103]

MT updates another element of the article. More detail on the motors (HP and Torque).

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