About a week into driving the $96,900 2025 Rivian R1T, I had a problem. The truck got so much right. But after hours on Texas interstates, I couldn't shake the feeling that its driver-assistance tech was behind the curve. For a software-defined company, its software couldn't hold up to the best that General Motors or Ford can offer.
I underestimated Rivian. Two months later, its CEO announced that hands-free driving was coming within a couple of weeks. Eyes-off highway driving is planned for next year.
This is why the software-defined vehicle is such a game-changer. Every Rivian I've driven has been markedly better than the one before. This constant cycle of improvements means a great product has only gotten better over time. It's the key reason why I believe that, though it may be on a tough road in 2025, Rivian is going to pull this off.
(Full Disclosure: Rivian loaned me an R1T for a road trip over the 2024 winter holidays.)
2025 Rivian R1T Dual-Motor Max Pack
Over-the-air updates are nothing new in the automotive world. Tesla pioneered this approach and has been refining it for a dozen years now. Yet nearly every other automaker that sells cars in the U.S. is way behind on that front. OTA updates for most models are few and far between. At most, your car may get a navigation system update or some general bug fixes.
But major updates with completely new features that make the car better over time and dramatically change your ownership experience? Only two companies are truly doing that. Tesla is one. Now, Rivian is another. (A third might be the Polestar 3, but we don’t know for sure because it’s so new.)
This has happened every time I’ve borrowed a Rivian for testing. Sometimes those updates are small, like the holiday-themed sounds and graphics or improvements to the efficiency graphs. Sometimes they include features an expensive luxury car should’ve always had, like SiriusXM satellite radio.
But other times they’re bigger, like shorter charging times, the addition of YouTube streaming, improvements to the parking assistance system, adding new networks of fast charging, even changing which battery runs the security-focused “Gear Guard” feature.
That tech experience is a big part of the appeal of owning a Rivian. It’s why the mighty Volkswagen Group is seeking help from the scrappy California startup. And it’s one reason of many that despite some shortcomings, the R1T may be the strongest choice among EV trucks right now.
What Is It?
The Rivian R1T launched in September of 2021 as the upstart automaker’s first product, followed in August 2022 by the closely related R1S SUV. For the 2025 model year, both EVs received significant under-the-skin updates, emphasizing the kind of tech-focused “less is more” approach to car manufacturing that every automaker is going for right now.
That approach brought a new zonal electrical architecture with fewer but more powerful ECUs. Rivian cut 1.6 miles of wiring out of the R1, contributing to 44 pounds of weight reduction. They got new 4K HDR cameras, Nvidia Drive Orin processors with 10 times the processing capacity of the old vehicles and an entirely new infotainment system. (Oh, and the so-called Gen1 R1 models are still getting significant wireless software updates too.)
Aside from the tech stuff, the R1T is a compelling choice in the still-limited field of electric trucks. For 2025, it comes in two-, three- and four-motor configurations, with the middle one being entirely new to the family. They start at $69,900 in base form (though you’ll probably have to order that) and can go well over $110,000 with options on the highest trims. Electric range spans 270 miles (434 km) to up to 420 miles (675 km.)
My Rivian tester was built to go the distance and do it quickly. This was a dual-motor model with the Max Pack battery rated at up to 420 miles of range. With the Performance Upgrade add-on, it boasted 665 horsepower and 829 lb-ft of torque.
That range and power combo handily trumps the Tesla Cybertruck and Ford F-150 Lightning, but not some configurations of the Chevrolet Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV. However, Rivian provides all that range and power with a significantly smaller battery than the one in GM’s EV trucks—a maximum of 149 kWh here—so it’s better for charging and overall efficiency.
This R1T also came with the lovely Rivian Blue paint—which sometimes looked light navy or turquoise depending on the lighting—as well as the black-and-white Ocean Coast + Dark Ash Wood interior offset by the flat-looking “range” wheels. A pretty tasteful combination, overall.
Driving Experience
The 400-mile (644 km) trip between San Antonio and Marfa, Texas is lonely but beautiful. Stretches of U.S. Interstate 10 have 80 mph speed limits, some of the highest in the country. You’ll easily get blitzed by cars doing 10 mph over that. You need to call your shots carefully; miss a rest stop and you may not see another for 30 or 40 miles. For a trip like that, you want power, comfort and range. Luckily for me, the R1T delivered on all fronts.
The R1T is smooth and powerful in nearly all situations. It’s less bulky than the GM EV trucks, has a more refined ride than the F-150 Lightning and feels more rugged and off-road capable than the Tesla Cybertruck, all while avoiding that vehicle’s awkward proportions.
For its 7,000-pound curb weight, the R1T is also remarkably agile. I can’t be disingenuous and call it sports car-like handling, but it has maneuverability and a lightness to it that I haven’t really experienced in any other pickup truck.
Credit its trick hydraulic suspension, which replaces the standard anti-roll bar you’d find in most trucks. Rivian’s Hydraulic Roll Control allows the R1T to resist body roll in corners like a sports car while offering the comfortable, easy-going ride you expect in a truck. The only other car company offering a suspension setup like this is McLaren, which perhaps explains why Rivian has poached top talent from the British supercar firm.
Like the R1S, you get three driving modes: All Purpose, All-Terrain and Snow. The Performance Upgrade adds Sport and Soft Sand. (The tri- and quad-motor trucks add even more settings.) In Sport mode, unleashing the full power and torque is still a gradual experience rather than a shove-you-into-your-seat hit of speed, but it’ll get to highway speeds with zero drama. This one will do 0-60 in 3.4 seconds.
I continue to think Rivian’s regenerative braking calibrating is a bit too aggressive, so I kept the R1T in its lowest setting. The customization there is nice and it remains fully capable of true one-pedal driving.
Interestingly, the truck switches to front-wheel drive—deactivating the rear motor—in optimal conditions to maximize range. This is such a seamless experience that you’d never know it was happening if the central screen didn’t tell you.
More control over that would be even better. I wish the dual-motor R1T models offered the option to keep it in that setting all of the time, like the Conserve Model on the quad-motor trucks or my Kia EV6’s efficiency-boosting Eco Mode. Hey Rivian: There’s a free software update idea.
Range, Efficiency, Charging
The R1T made an electric road trip easy. The truck always projected around 420 miles of range at 100%. On the way out to Marfa, at speeds between 70 and 75 mph and on a very windy day, I was averaging about 2.25 miles per kWh—not especially great, but indicative of the R1T’s size, weight and brick-like aerodynamics. The R1T does lower its ride height at highway speeds to maximize efficiency, but you can only do so much about physics.
I dropped as low as 1.8 miles per kWh at times. Frankly, none of these electric trucks are great in this department. On the return trip, with less wind and more cautious driving, I got it up to 2.4 miles per kWh. Around town, I got closer to 3.0 miles per kWh.
I left San Antonio with 411 miles (661 km) of range at 98% and reached a Tesla Supercharger station in Ozona 205 miles (329 km) away with 101 miles (162 km) of range and 23% battery left. In other words, the Rivian burned 310 miles of range over 172 miles of highway travel.
Knowing the next DC fast charger was 106 miles away, I had no choice but to stop there, and my bladder was about to explode anyway. But Rivian hooked me up with a Tesla NACS adapter and it was a godsend for this trip.
An R1T can pull speeds of up to 220 kW on a DC fast charger (now faster than before thanks to a software update.) On a Tesla plug, the truck hit 204 kW charging speeds right away and juiced to 80% in 26 minutes—enough time for lunch and a bathroom break. In another instance in Austin, I charged from 30% to 80% in 23 minutes on a 350 kW EVGo station. On the way back from Marfa we only had to stop to charge once, at that Ozona Tesla station again.
On one hand, the R1T burned more range than, say, a Hyundai Ioniq 5 or a Tesla Model 3 would have on the same drive. On the other hand, it had more than enough juice to get it all done. Route planning on a Rivian is also generally excellent, showing you the different networks available (including Tesla chargers), available stalls and how long you need to spend at each station to reach your destination.
Interior And Comfort
Inside, the R1 series apes the Tesla playbook. The touchscreen is everything and buttons are as scarce as they can be, but the Rivian feels nicer and more upscale than any Tesla. The R1T eschews the Cybertruck’s techno-brutalist vibes for a pleasant, airy and modern experience. The seats are extremely comfortable as well, though the cabin could use a “grab bar” for easier entry and exit, as some trucks have.
There are some very nice materials inside but also a few that feel cheaper than they should at this price, like the steering wheel and its buttons. I also had a nagging dash rattle throughout our whole trip. On the plus side, I never felt cooked by that panoramic glass roof in the Texas sun, which can happen even in December.
My biggest gripe was the lack of physical air vents, ostensibly another cost-cutting measure. Like a Tesla, you adjust the direction and volume of the airflow with the central touchscreen, which is a delicate, frustrating operation that requires taking your eyes off the road.
Tech And Infotainment
Rivian will never win its war on buttons until its voice controls get better. They significantly lag behind many other competitors, including Hyundai and Kia. A better AI-powered voice assistant is supposedly coming this year. That’s great, because the Amazon Alexa system I tested never seemed to understand much and didn’t display what I asked on the screen. It borders on useless.
As for the ADAS tech, my experience was fine, but not class-leading. My tester could do automatic lane changes when I hit the turn signal, but won't do it on its own, like GM's Super Cruise. Not only did it not feel as confident as that, I still had to keep my hands on the wheel at times. I'm eager to test the improvements coming to the Rivian Autonomy Platform soon.
Aside from that, the tech is pretty robust. The screen graphics, animations and the system’s overall speed outclass most competitors I can think of, aside from Tesla. The Rivian smartphone app is one of the best around as well, offering charging management, phone-as-key recognition, the ability to add users and route-planning that can be sent to the vehicle on the fly. My Kia EV6 is a great electric car but it feels 10 years behind all of that. The native Spotify integration was nice, it could use some tweaking; glitches and freezes meant a few restarts for that app.
I’ve written before about how much I love the central screen’s graphics, but I wish it was easier to find the various menus and functions I wanted. Some of them, like Car Wash mode, are buried in obscure places. Here’s another free update idea, Rivian: make this stuff searchable from wherever you’re at in the menus.
How Is It As A Truck?
Pick your tradeoffs in the EV truck world. The F-150 Lightning offers capability that lives up to its name, but sacrifices range and efficiency. The GM EV trucks take a lot of power or time to juice up. And the Cybertruck I’ve tested feels more “cyber” than “truck.”
The R1T’s ostensible biggest downside is the bed size, just 4.5 feet (137 cm) with the tailgate up. That’s a little shorter than the Ford and a lot shorter than the Tesla or the GM trucks. It’s even shorter than the bed in a crew-cab Toyota Tacoma or Ford Ranger. You make that up with tons of storage space, including the 11-cubic-foot frunk and innovative Gear Tunnel feature. Still, hauling lengthy items isn’t the R1T’s strong suit.
It’s among the best electric trucks for towing, however, with a class-leading 11,000-pound (4,990 kg) max towing capacity. However, the Cybertruck has a higher payload capacity. I haven’t towed with either so I can’t say for such which is best there.
But capability with the R1T also includes three “wall socket” style 120-volt outlets, including two in the bed itself. Ford, Tesla and GM all offer 240-volt power outlets in addition to their 120-volt plugs, though, so if you want to power industrial tools those may be better options. I recommend adding the power tonneau cover option that my tester didn’t have, although it’s another $2,000 for that.
Between the air suspension with controllable ride height, the solid approach/departure angles, its trick hydraulic anti-roll system and its various drive modes, the R1T may be the best all-around electric off-roader, however. I lacked the All-Terrain Package with A/T tires to truly try and crawl rocks (it also cuts your range down to 370 miles in dual-motor form) but I had zero problems taking the R1T across dirt roads and rocky desert terrain that would’ve been trickier for most cars.
All in all, it’s a very capable lifestyle truck, adventure rig and gear-hauler, but it won’t outpace a Jeep Wrangler or a Toyota Tacoma in the most extreme of situations. Then again, for most Rivian owners, it will hardly ever need to.
Pricing And Verdict
Since I spent time in the R1T, I’ve been telling people that the next time I have $96,900 to spend on an electric truck, this is the one I’d want.
That’s certainly not a position I’ll be in anytime soon. That’s a lot, even in a world where trucks have become so expensive across the board. But for those with the money to spend, the 2025 R1T is both a truly remarkable everyday vehicle and piece of technology. If you do buy one, it’s an investment in a product that has continual improvement baked in. Who else can say that right now, besides Tesla? No wonder other automakers besides Volkswagen are “knocking on the door” these days.
If you want a taste of the future, Rivian offers it right now—and it’s gotten too good at this stuff to not be around for that future.
Gallery: 2025 Rivian R1T Review
Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com
