Rivian R1S and R1T Quad-Motor review: fire up the quattro… er quad

What in the granola-crunching heck are those?

These are the Rivians R1S and R1T Quad-motor, the toppers of the R1 platform. Though one is a three-row SUV and the other a pickup, they are otherwise virtually identical, and we’re here to tell you about what they can do with four electric motors.

We’re guessing fast?

You guess correctly. A new drive unit with two motors each on the front and rear axle gives the outdoorsy EVs 1,025hp and 1,198lb ft of torque, all available in an instant. Rockets from 0 to 60mph in 2.5 seconds, can do a quarter-mile run in 10.5s. Exciting, but that’s not even the half of it.

Go on.

First off, the R1s are on their second generation, and as you would expect, this brought along improvements to the available drivetrains, range, and ride quality, and tweaks to the overall design. A number of features were added, as well as a new powertrain configuration, the tri-motor.

Producing 850hp and 1,102lb ft, it surpassed the first gen’s quad-motor capabilities so, naturally, if the second generation was going to continue to even have a quad-motor option, it had to be even more powerful. Simple, really.

The thing is, not only did Rivian go ahead and do that, it added new quad-exclusive features that take full advantage of what the beefed-up powertrain is capable of, and the result is far more intriguing than ‘truck go fast’.

Notably, the rear drive unit is the muscle while the front unit is about precision and control. There’s even an automatic rear disconnect that’ll only use AWD when you need it but allow drivers to stretch the miles on FWD when they don’t.

On the topic of range, the gen-2 batteries have 140kWh of usable juice and a peak charge rate of 220kW at a DC fast charger. These also have NACS charge ports, and the EPA has estimated the quad-motor to have 374 miles of range, though Rivian says conserve mode can stretch that to an even 400.

But ‘truck go fast’ right?

Sigh. Truck go fast. Truck go up, truck go down, truck… spin around.

Remember ‘tank turn’? It was an element featured early in Rivian’s hype campaign where the quad-motored R1 spun in place like, well, a tank to demonstrate what an EV off-roader can do better than your traditional combustion-powered stalwarts. This cool showcase quickly faded into the background as Rivian became part of the mainstream electric vehicle crowd, but it’s back now, and called ‘kick turn’.

What’s the difference between tank and kick?

The way Rivian puts it, it had a second thought about what is essentially a party trick. More than likely, customers would just shred their tires in a parking lot to impress their friends and for the ‘gram, and then quickly forget about it. This isn’t really Rivian’s style, and it’s fitting that the Mercedes-Benz EV G-Wagen implemented a similar function called ‘G-turn’ which instantly became exactly what Rivian predicted tank turn would be.

It’s also worth mentioning the eco-friendly ethos of the brand also doesn’t really lend to turning your utility vehicle into an environment-wrecking earth grinder for a laugh.

Now the question remains: how do you make something like this… useful? First off, kick turn rotates in place up to a fixed speed, all of which is under driver control. The Rivian can’t simply whip around faster as you mash the pedal. The degrees of turn are up to you – 90, 180, 360 degrees. Heck, even seven if you just need to make a slight adjustment. You’ve got 20 seconds to decide before Rivian brings you to a halt.

So it spins… responsibly?

Essentially, yes. It only works on dirt (or possibly wet pavement) and there are the aforementioned speed and time limits. Sorry if that takes the wind out of your sails, but it’s meant to be more useful than flashy. If it makes you feel better, it also works while on the move.

Wait, you can kick turn while driving?!

Yes! It looks pretty wacky and feels awkward, but you can basically do 90-degree turns around corners while driving the quad-motor in certain conditions. How it works is like this: With kick turn activated, the directional buttons on either side of the steering wheel control the turn direction: hold both left buttons for left, etc. When stationary, this starts the rotation but when driving, it ‘kicks’ the rear around as it ‘turns’ hence the name, G-Tank.

In this regard, it’s not dissimilar to Ford’s Trail Turn Assist that’s featured in select vehicles like the F-150 Tremor, though that’s done through applying the brakes to the inside wheels and forcing it to rip around as opposed to the precision allowed by four motors operating each wheel. All of these have their use cases off-road, be it to round a tree or stump, or to maneuver out of a tight spot an off-roader might’ve found themselves in.

Bet that has speed limits, too.

Sure, but you could always drift it.

Is there a drift mode?

There’s a great drift mode! In fact, there are two presets in particular that are phenomenal for sideways fun: Rally and Drift. These are also featured in the tri-motor and they’re both really effective in making the R1S/T a sliding champion. Rally is particularly good at providing enough ‘give’ before it reins you in, while drift loosens up the limits even more.

When it comes to software-based vehicles like this, these numerous digital tolerances dictate everything, and not often to a driver’s liking. Which conveniently leads us to probably the most important feature in the new Rivian quad-motor: the RAD Tuner.

What’s the RAD Tuner?

This is the latest feature developed by the Rivian Adventure Department, which seems to be the dream job for rugged nerds. We say that affectionately, of course, and Rivian itself refers to the tuner as something ‘for the nerds’ who want to tweak car behavior to their liking.

We’re used to drive modes in just about every car now dictating the vehicle behavior on the roads, in slippery weather, off-road and on the track. All of them have been fixed presets with little real customization until now. RAD Tuner completely changes the game by unlocking everything and letting the driver set everything as they want them, for better or for worse.

Pedal response, torque balance, wheel slip, regen, ride height… the list literally goes on. Every aspect you’d think to change can be, and a number of graphics with info boxes inform the driver of just what behaviors are affected. If you’ve ever agonized over a car’s settings in Gran Turismo before a race in a desperate bid to eke out a bit more performance, this will look familiar. As is the ability to effectively ruin the car through your choices.

The point is, it’s there for you to use if you see fit. But you’re free to keep to the preset modes, and even those can be tweaked. For instance, during our shakedown of the quad-motor, we drove it up a particularly challenging rock formation on the side of Donner Mountain, a popular skiing spot near Lake Tahoe. Rivian’s ‘rock crawl’ mode is dialed in for careful creeping up difficult, slippery obstacles like this, but we found the pedal to be too sensitive for the precision inputs needed to accomplish this smoothly.

When we griped to an engineer, they said: “You can adjust this in the RAD Tuner.” And of course, they were right, but since this is such a new thing, it never occurred to us.

This spurred us to try all sorts of combinations like throw all the power to the rear and set wheel slip to 100 per cent, and tune the sport settings to match the torque split of an Audi R8. From here, regen can be turned off completely allowing the EV to feel as close to a combustion car as you’d prefer. Heck, you can crank it all the way up and drive the Rivian like it has a handbrake on. The choice is yours.

How do they stack against the competition?

The R1T pickup doesn’t have much to worry about in terms of direct opposition. EV pickups like Ford’s F-150 Lightning and GMC’s Sierra EV might occupy the same segment but each have different priorities. Both can be quick in bursts and can handle some mild off-roading, but neither will be as fast or as capable. Tesla’s Cybertruck might send you screaming off the line, but it won’t have the dynamics to back it up once it's turning time, nor will it fare nearly as well beyond the pavement.

Rivian’s R1S SUV keeps harder company, though few act as sufficient all-in-one solutions. A number of them offer speed, luxury and utility but even the most capable barely come close to what the Rivian offers. For instance, Ford’s Mach-E Rally is meant to be a fun plaything on the dirt but Rivian’s engineers have included software that allows its three-row family vehicle to completely upstage it.

Other offerings like the GMC Hummer EV and Mercedes-Benz all-electric G580 can chop it up off-road surprisingly well, but do better in urban settings. Tesla’s Model X remains a decent benchmark, but is quite long in the tooth at this stage and the R1S brings far more functionality to the table.

What’s the final takeaway?

Similar to what Lucid has achieved in the luxury EV sedan space, Rivian has put a vehicle at the top of its line-up that blows past high benchmarks that luxury automakers in the same space can even dream about. It comes at a price, but the quad-motor has the power and capability that would put a smile on the face of the most cynical motorhead, all while offering utility and without compromised off-road footing.

The quad-motor’s new exclusive features – RAD Tuner and Kick Turn – should absolutely be ‘shots fired’ for automakers who cater to enthusiasts. When it comes to the former in particular, it’s unprecedented access to our own vehicles that has hitherto been unheard of, but should always have been there.

We still think it's a bit menu-heavy, but we understand that the Rivian R1S/T is more comparable to a gaming computer in this sense. It’s too much for your average email-sender, but it’s got the computational prowess for those who really need it.

And?

… and truck go fast.