- The Rivian R1T and the hybrid Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro are both seriously capable off-roaders.
- The R1T gets adaptive dampers, dual e-motors churning over 800 pound-feet of torque and a clever traction system.
- The hybrid Tacoma is raw and mechanical, with proven off-road chops to take on the toughest terrain.
An electric vehicle may not strike as an obvious choice for your off-road escapades, but automakers are advertising their EVs as off-road capable anyway. Rivian is doing that more than others, with its adventurous positioning as the key differentiator between itself and its rivals like Tesla and Lucid. Rivian says the R1T can crawl on rocks, drive over snow, keep moving through sand and get you to your destination. But when it's up against a proven hybrid off-roader in the real world, how does it fare?
Edmunds correspondent Emme Hall, who’s also an InsideEVs contributor, recently put the second-generation R1T head-to-head against the hybrid Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro to find out which truck would go further in an adventure setting. Her team drove both trucks to Johnson Valley in Southern California to test them out.
The R1T was the dual-motor version with the 149 kilowatt-hour Max battery pack. While it seems capable on paper with 533 horsepower and over 800 pound-feet of torque, off-roading requires more than that. Crazy torque figures won’t cut it. Its off-road chops include adaptive air suspension, a trick hydraulic suspension, high approach and departure angles, off-road tires, brake torque vectoring and a bunch of drive modes that adjust traction and suspension settings.
The Tacoma, on the other hand, is more mechanical. Its 2.4-liter, four-cylinder, turbo-charged engine produces 326 hp and 465 lb-ft of torque. Unlike the unibody R1T, the Tacoma relies on a body-on-frame construction, which is generally better suited when the going gets rough, thanks to its inherent rigidity. The Tacoma also has a locking rear differential, solid rear axle, disconnecting sway bar at the front, 4x4 transfer case and off-road-tuned Fox shocks.
In the hill climb test, the R1T struggled to get past the steepest section despite having so much oomph from the electric motors. Rivian offers brake torque vectoring to power the wheels that have the most traction—and brake the ones slipping—but that wasn’t enough to get past this section. Brake torque vectoring only stops the wheels spinning excessively. It does not redistribute that lost torque to wheels with traction.
The Tacoma, meanwhile, aced the hill climb thanks to its rear locker, which allowed both rear wheels to spin together and put down power more effectively. The Tacoma also nailed the rock climbing and articulation tests thanks to its disconnecting sway bar, which allowed the front axle to dance up and down and adapt to the pattern of the terrain.
The Rivian, however, seemed more at home on the sand. That’s where the excess power and torque really helped it shine without the traction control being too intrusive. The sand section also seemed bumpy, which a unibody construction typically handles better as it can absorb, distribute and dissipate those harsh impacts much better, especially while going fast.
That last bit also makes the R1T better on the road, at least in comfort and smoothness. That’s not to say that it's not capable off-road, but the Tacoma’s mechanical set-up seems just better suited for the slow-speed hill climbs and rock crawls.
The upcoming Scout Terra would probably make for a more apple-to-apples comparison. Scout has said that its EVs will get a solid rear axle like the Tacoma plus locking front and rear diffs, which should help them stand out as true off-roaders, at least on paper.
The video above is worth watching because it will help you understand the current limitations of the dual-motor R1T and what Rivian can do to improve its future iterations.
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