First drive: Rivian’s Tri-Motor R1 is more of a good thing, available now

Rivian invited us to come up and drive its new tri-motor “R1 Tri” spec vehicle through the hills of Malibu. Here’s what we thought about the drive.

The event was out of Rivian’s Venice Space, which was showing off the R2 and R3X as part of its R2 tour. But it also hosted auto journalists for a drive of the R1 Tri up PCH and through the famously snaky roads in the hills above Malibu, CA, and a roundtable discussion with Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe (which we’ve posted some insights from, about the VW/Rivian partnership and Rivian’s soon-to-be-open Adventure Network).

The new tri-motor Rivian, which Rivian is simply calling the R1 Tri, is a mid-spec addition to its post-refresh product line. It sits between the base model dual motor and the higher-spec quad motor (Rivian has had a quad-motor before, but cut that option when it brought motor development in-house, though it will return in 2025), occupying what one engineer told us is a “Goldilocks” position – not too much, not too little.

Although “not too much” is relative here, because the Tri still offers a whopping 850 horsepower – which is more than, well, just about anything. It may not be as much as the 1,025hp Quad Max, coming in 2025, which shattered records at Pike’s Peak, but 850 is still a lot of go-go-go.

That’s enough to bring you from 0-60 in 2.9 seconds, along with the debut of Launch Mode to help drivers coax maximum performance out of their vehicle. Launch mode will track your times, top speed, g-forces, and even capture your launch with the vehicle’s cameras (since we were on public roads shared with traffic and cyclists, we didn’t test this). It also utilizes Rivian’s cute “Gear Guard” mascot for a fun animation.

The Tri works with 1 motor in front and 2 in the rear, which means you have more control at the rear with two motors that are able to work independently of each other. This could come up in off-road situations with difficult traction, and also offers performance benefits in terms of torque vectoring on the axle that does most of the work during acceleration.

We drove the R1T truck, and in our drive on those narrow roads above Malibu, there wasn’t a lot of opportunity to really stretch out that 850hp, at least not in a legal or safe manner. But we never felt even the slightest bit starved for power, zipping up hills and carrying the ~7,000lb curb weight along with us.

For such a large and heavy truck, the R1T was nevertheless impressively nimble. When the truck was in my co-driver’s hands, the rear end did feel jumpy a few times when going over slightly bumpy parts of the road – perhaps a different suspension mode might have helped with this.

While we tried several of the modes available, there are so many permutations of drive mode, suspension stiffness, ride height, steering response, regen mode and so on that it would probably take some time to really dial in the car to make it feel exactly like you want. I’m generally not a huge fan of different drive modes, though for some things like suspension and ride height it makes sense.

In terms of battery, the Tri comes equipped with Rivian’s Max size battery pack, which gives it 371 miles of range. Rivian says you can push this to 405 miles in “conserve” mode, but as usual, your mileage may vary.

These range numbers are both predicated on using road tires. Rivian also offers all-terrain tires with more off-road versatility, but these come with a penalty to efficiency, lowering range to 329 miles.

The Tri comes alongside the debut of Rivian’s new “Ascend” trim level, an interior with premium materials throughout and some additional new features, over and above the hundreds of changes that Rivian made alongside this year’s Gen 2 refresh.

For now all Tris will come in Ascend trim, which includes Rivian Premium Audio, an upgraded 960 watt Dolby Atmos sound system, a darkout package that replaces chrome badges with darker-colored ones, a 150PSI air compressor with a hose that can reach all four tires, and Rivian’s dynamic glass roof which becomes electrochromically opaque at the tap of a button if you want to block the sun.

The interior felt plenty comfortable and obviously spacious for all the time we were in it, though it’s not as directly comfort-oriented as some of the other large EVs we’ve tried, like the Volvo EX90 and the Hyundai Ioniq 9 (the latter was a concept interior, though).

The Rivian still gets points for being exceptionally utilitarian though, with plenty of pockets and storage spaces throughout. This is one reason why Rivian excels in customer satisfaction, because it’s just such an easy vehicle to use.

In the end, the R1 Tri doesn’t revolutionize anything about what Rivian was already doing, but just adds another option for owners who want more power and capability… and are willing to pay extra for it.

The new R1 Tri-Motor is available now, with R1T starting at $99,900 and R1S starting at $105,900 at Rivian.com. Deliveries of inventory vehicles look to have a 1-6 week lead time currently, so should be available by the end of the year – but custom configurations are quoted with a 8-12 week lead time, and thus seem unlikely that they’ll deliver by the end of the year.

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