The R1S has similar specs to its pickup sibling: A 135-kilowatt-hour battery pack powers four motors, one per wheel, allowing individual control of each motor separately for the most effective all-wheel drive traction. John Voelcker Drag Race Ready for the SUV Crowd We’ll get to them shortly.īut the rear half of this new Rivian blends the company’s themes with some Land Rover cues. Again, no Tesla-style reinventing the interior here-except, that is, for some of the controls. The dashboard is sleek, with very few actual knobs, though the steering wheel has conventional stalks and a digital screen serving as an instrument panel behind the wheel. The company’s material choices and color palette aren’t something you’ll see in any other luxury vehicle, and we found them a pleasure to spend time in. Under its full glass roof, the interior of a Rivian is an elegant, soothing place. No one will mistake it for the rotund, slightly overinflated look of a Tesla Model X, its closest competitor in the small category of luxury electric SUVs. Just as the R1T pickup immediately reads as a truck, the R1S says “classic SUV” from a distance. Its lines are clean, and we’re getting used to the peculiar thin vertical headlights in its otherwise smooth, blank front “face.” Unlike many electric SUVs that work to disguise lines closer to a hatchback with a steeply angled tailgate, the R1S is a classic, upright SUV. The Rivian is a restrained but distinctive vehicle. With the same mechanical pieces as the R1T, the R1S is just as capable off-road, offering precise control and instant torque for an experience few traditional SUVs can quite replicate. Overall, it’s about 16 inches shorter-which makes it slightly more agile for off-roading. It doesn’t have the pickup’s clever transverse “gear tunnel” behind the rear seats, because the rear wheels sit there instead. Despite its third row of seats, the SUV’s 121.1-inch wheelbase is 14.7 inches shorter than the pickup’s, and its rear doors are longer. The R1S midsize SUV can be viewed as half of an R1T pickup, from the front bumper to the center post between the doors.
On-road miles and driving time came first, with off-roading as a secondary use case. Still, the driving event reflected the SUV’s likely duties, especially compared to the off-roading abilities of the Rivian R1T electric pickup truck. They’re adventurous, eco-conscious and affluent-and they need EVs that can do strenuous off-roading during those adventures.Īccordingly, the first press drive for the 2022 Rivian R1S sport utility vehicle encompassed not only around-town and country-road driving, but a 20-minute off-road course used by 4x4s from the likes of Jeep and Land Rover. The marketers at electric vehicle startup Rivian have a very specific idea of the brand’s customers. In a relationship similar to the Honda Pilot and Ridgeline, this three-row ute is almost identical to its pickup sibling ahead of the B-pillar. The R1T pickup is only just becoming a familiar sight on the road, but Rivian’s next act is the R1S SUV.