I tend to travel a good amount for work, and when I do, I often drive a lot of different vehicles. One of my least favorite exercises is figuring out where I can stuff suitcases into a pickup truck. Do you put them in the bed? What happens if you hit a bump, or have to swerve suddenly? Will they be safe there if you park for a bit? You can stuff them into the cabin, but then you risk hurting your upholstery and you lose seating space. Who wants to do that?
Lots of electric vehicle owners have flexed for their friends by pulling suitcases out of a frunk. Every electric truck on sale right now has a pretty generous frunk, probably in part to address that very problem. But Rivian takes things to the next level, and it's a perfect example of why I'm excited about the EV revolution.
I borrowed a 2025 Rivian R1T Dual-Motor Performance truck with the Max Battery over the holidays, and I can honestly say I've never driven a truck better at hauling different types of gear than that. It's because of the R1T's signature Gear Tunnel feature that comes standard on every Rivian truck.
You might've seen this before. It's nothing new, of course. While the R1T and R1S got significant updates for the 2025 model year, including upgraded software, a new electric architecture and fewer components overall, the Gear Tunnel has been around since the R1T debuted in 2021. But this test was my first real experience with the feature, and I think's a remarkable example of the potential of packaging in the EV era.
Here's how it works. The R1T combines body-on-frame construction (think a conventional truck, like a Ford F-150 or a Chevrolet Silverado) and unibody qualities (a more car-like way of making vehicles like the Honda Ridgeline). Being electric, the R1T does not have an engine upfront or a driveshaft tunnel running through the body to send power through the wheels. This allowed designers to add a hollow cargo space right behind the cabin that's discreetly integrated into the truck bed itself.
The space inside the tunnel is 65 inches (1651 mm) long, 18.1 inches (460 mm) wide, and 20.3 (515 mm) inches high. While it's long but narrow, it offers 11.7 cu ft (331 liters) of total extra storage space. It was enough to fit two medium-sized, non-carry-on suitcases we had for our trip, plus other items like coats or all of the stuff for our dog. (For a pomeranian, he somehow doesn't travel very light.)
The tunnel can be opened with buttons on the bed rail, the Rivian smartphone app or the central infotainment screen. Each tunnel door can be opened independently of one another. Those doors can also support up to 250 lbs (114 kg) each, so they're perfect for taking a quick seat when you're out camping, for example. The doors themselves even have smaller storage compartments of their own.
The best part of this, I'd argue, is the inclusion of 12-volt and 110-volt outlets inside the tunnel. That means when you've locked any valuable electronic stuff away from view—say, laptops or cameras—you can charge them while they're in there. That's a great use of this EV as a mobile energy storage unit, as many trucks are leaning into as they work to offer extra degrees of capability.
Granted, the Gear Tunnel isn't perfect. Rivian could be doing a bit more with the feature. The previously announced Camp Kitchen—a literal mobile cooking unit that attached to the tunnel and ran off the electric battery—now seems permanently MIA. A Rivian spokesperson confirmed this to me recently: "Our recently introduced Travel Kitchen replaced Camp Kitchen," they said. "You can use it anywhere, with or without a Rivian. We prioritized a design with the best attributes of Camp Kitchen that is useful and approachable to anyone, not just R1T owners."
As it does, the aftermarket has picked up the slack, and now we're seeing the Gear Tunnel get specialized gear of its own from third-party shops. Rivian said it's actually excited about this: "We’re exploring ways to engage the aftermarket community in a more formal way, but for now, we offer a wide range of accessories on the Gear Shop that are thoroughly researched and tested to safely use with our vehicles," the spokesperson said.
It's a remarkably useful feature, especially for a truck that already comes with a pretty generous frunk of its own. And I think it's why EV packaging is going to be such a big deal in the future.
For the past century, automotive design has centered around one fairly immutable principle: You have to put the engine and transmission somewhere. This has, pretty much without exception, meant car design has revolved around having an engine up front in almost every case—mid-engined exotics and rear-engined cars like the Porsche 911 or Alpine A110 notwithstanding. A good variety of vans have had their engines mounted in the middle over the years, too. Our safety regulations are built around these rules as well, and that's why they so influence modern EV designs.
Yet any way you package an engine or a transmission, you cut into space that can be used for other things, like seating or storage. If an EV only has to account for its floor-mounted batteries, electric motors and certain essential components, it can be built and packaged in all sorts of novel ways. We've only really seen a few examples of this at work so far, most notably EV frunks. But we know there are promising concepts out there trying to build on this idea.
Take Toyota, for example. It's late to the game on competitive modern EVs. But we know designers and engineers are working on a next-generation platform that will move beyond the "gas car stuffed with batteries" approach and open up new design possibilities. The first car to use that platform should be a Lexus sedan. When I asked Toyota executives in 2023 why they chose a sedan for that project, they said it was because they wanted designers and engineers to squeeze out as much space as they could from a smaller body; an SUV or minivan would present fewer challenges on that front. From this, they want to innovate further. Adding things like steer-by-wire can also increase interior space.
Another example was the EV startup Canoo. Despite declaring bankruptcy recently and never really presenting a viable business plan, you have to admit Canoo had a first-rate design game (and I hope some company takes that and runs with it). Modular commercial and delivery vehicles, all built on a common platform and with potentially interchangeable bodies? It's a killer idea. Kia seems to be taking up its mantle instead, and I'm sure others will follow.
For now, at least, the Rivian R1T's Gear Tunnel is one of the most impressive—and practical—features I've experienced on any modern car or truck. It may not be a wholesale reset of how cars can be designed, but it shows what can be done when internal combustion components don't need to take up space anymore. And as that idea catches on, the sky may be the limit when it comes to car design.
Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com
