2023 Rivian R1S Review // The Tesla Bronco Defender

foreign [Music] you're watching throttle house I'm Thomas and I'm James and this is the rivian R1 test and unlike the truck this well it's an SUV it gets the same 835 horsepower and 908 pound-feet of torque as the r1t we tested but instead of a flatbed we're treated to an extra row of seats the dual motor starts at 78 000 US dollars but this one today is the quad motor which comes with the large battery pack so it boasts 289 miles of range and costs just under a hundred thousand dollars or about 125 Grand Canadian numbers which may give your face the same expression as the r1s's face but considering how very good the rivian truck is we have high hopes for the SUV but liver let's find out [Applause] car reviews track tests to see about so subscribe hit the Bell [Music] okay in the rivian sport mode break regen high ride stiff floor it [Music] that's a 7 000 pound SUV that can hit nor to 60 in three seconds the r in rivian stands for Rapid the eye stands for stands for I should have thought about what the rest of that acrostic was going to be before I started trying to do it the V is it yeah that's gone the thing is how very well it can hustle in a canyon and we had that with the truck version the r1t it shocked us it shocked us also in the way that it could just do everything so well the way it could go from being an off-roader rock crawling through the desert and then also you turn onto a road like this built it little drift there with the all-terrain tires and just be straight up to speed now this has some differences to the truck and I'm not talking about a truck bed and the gear tunnel I'm talking about the fact that it actually has a shorter wheelbase and that has led to some interesting things because it makes the driving Dynamics quite different we were never sure about the ride in the truck we forgave it even though it wasn't perfectly Supple we forgave it because of how well it did all the other stuff in the SUV even having the car in soft and in the all-purpose mode it it kind of it's bumpy it gets unsettled there's a there's an immediate layer of just discomfort and even then when it hits big bumps it gets very unsettled and on the highway are these horrible California highways that are just concrete or cement wherever they are it enters a rhythm where it's just a good good good good good and that's a shame because certain Rivals like the new three-row Defender they're softer and they still have the ruggedness and the off-road stuff although the defender and the Bronco Raptor and the G-Wagon all the fast slightly luxury off-roaders can't move quite the way this one does [Music] because no matter what you do you can't compete with the fact that all of the weight okay most of the weight of this car is down here lower center of gravity means better handling also this has a flashlight in the door that's pretty freaking cool [Music] and also none of those cars have quad Motors there is a dual motor version of this coming but this is Quad 4 Motors one on each wheel and the advantages of that are huge especially off-road you don't need locking differentials it can control Wheels independently power them break them move you over uneven terrain and even on a road like this in sport mode when I have it now at the lowest setting it just scrabbles out of the corner finds grip and just Rockets you around in a way that a big SUV should not my God it's so quick actually I love the motor noise that you hear the electric motors come through into the cabin there's four of them but we noticed with the r1t where it carve canyons in a really incredible way I will say though that compared to the r1t this steering in this isn't as good I don't know if it has to do with the stuff that James talked about wheelbase related I don't know different tuning or whatever it should be the same front end as the r1t but steering isn't quite as communicative or as sharp I don't really know what that's about and when it comes to the actual handling of the car this one doesn't feel quite as stable and predictable as the r1t does especially at higher speeds this car if it's so prone to oversteer like to a I don't like using the word dangerous but to a potentially dangerous level higher speed Corners like this turn in oh my God the rear steps out okay yeah it just like for some reason you just that's a 70 mile an hour drift that I just didn't need in my life I've driven race cars that are less prone to Stepping the rear out than this wow okay I'm gonna take it out of sport mode we're gonna drive this in conserve through here the only other issue is what you're hearing right now is there's a lot of wind noise I don't want to say the r1t didn't have that I don't remember exactly if it's the same as this but I don't remember it being quite this much yeah this is a deeply impressive vehicle to drive but for some reason it doesn't feel quite as dialed in in terms of calibration of everything steering swaddle suspension all that as the r1t does so from a strictly driving perspective I think I'd take the truck and you know what I think when it comes to Features accessories and styling I think I take the truck there too okay my my love for what this stuff is is not diminished at all my my love for it never existed but hey uh we're lovely to be your partner I I think I think it it still is cool like I really do like all of the the lifestyle in the in the in the cool features I don't even care about that I'm talking about just as a vehicle I like the aesthetic of the lights I love I love the quirkiness of the the way this light bulb lights up green I like the wheels that the shape of it the Box the SUV shape and calm down need some time alone um I listen I I think the truck looks cooler I think the truck is cooler because this is missing the gear tunnel I agree this this didn't revolutionize SUVs the way the truck revolutionized this V is right here going where is the gear tunnel that's it that's where his Hive would be because there were so many things you could do with that gear tunnel yeah there's a kitchen that comes out yeah so excuse me sir or behave no the the we can't get upset at an SUV for not being a truck and because it's an SUV it's got three rows yeah and now you can get more people in it well you can get like four and three quarters people you can get children in the back yeah I I it's very cramped for legroom yeah uh but headroom's okay and it's reasonably comfortable and you get your own glass roof in the back and the front view will get a bigger glass roof which that's true it's so tinted he's still there the sun is not an issue is he there he wants to make some honey um this is in limestone over this is Black Mountain over Black Mountain yeah what's the Black Mountain part in the interior Thomas oh I see interior I was like is it this bit uh we got the all-terrain tires at the moment so we might race this against something soon which is going to be slightly unfair on these tires but stay tuned for that or maybe we've already done it um but from from the I think the B pillar forward this is the same as the truck so we still have a great trunk yes you doing tricks you do a kickflip nature how does it work well cool um should we just look at the interior yeah okay no I want to get in here over you go okay Familia yeah it's well it's basically the same um listen I really like the design yeah okay I don't love some of the materials they do feel a bit of vegan leathers and all that stuff right I I kind of like it no no wood the wood is great okay the other stuff but like like the leathers and you know it's a bit plastic but it's not high-end pricing it's not six figures this car in US dollars in Canada it is it kind of bits the beginning yeah it's it's more American Premium level levels it's more yeah I think Escalade not Range Rover although this is not like an ESV sized car so when the back seat back row is up yeah the trunk space is not huge in the back no it's not huge but the seats fold flat yep they do as do the middle seats some of the seats are a little bit you know they can't they don't power up no they're not they're not all as electrical as some of the fancy cars like yeah x7s and stuff I guess they're trying everywhere they can save weight because the batteries are just so yeah and money I mean if you remember when this car came out it was 70 000 US Dollars yeah then they're like oops we decided to raise the price yeah everybody um okay so a few issues that have not changed yeah since the last wait let's go into sport mode okay sport mode all right so this is one of my favorite things we've gone we're going from 15 inches now yeah it's a huge drop to 10.1 inches and in fact you can go even learn that well don't do that okay we're never gonna get up this hill now 9.5 minutes it's gonna Crush all the Tumbleweed yeah so and not only does the ride height drop like that because this is the r1s and you might want to camp on top yeah it has self-leveling caps the suspension moves to make sure that you are always level and don't fall out yes laterally end yeah uh pitching for an Afton oh yeah it uses all the airspatch on each Corner which I think is pretty impressive um okay so otherwise I I don't mind the screen I think it looks great there's lots of really cool fun little things in it and stuff yeah but fundamentally right it's incredibly flawed number one yeah there's no apple carplay there's no apple carplay it is quick to use yeah but we did run into an issue today because no one can best apple carplay and every time we say that someone normally mentions like what's the big deal the big deal is it's the best tech that's constantly updating this is the see how responsive that is yes that's great and then we typed in the road we wanted to go to today which is literally right here yeah and then it didn't have it and it typed in the lake next to it and it didn't have that either even though on the map you can see the words yeah and there's a few other little things like for example when I had you know moved my seat it pops a thing up here which doesn't go away for a very long time yeah and and one of the biggest things is like let's say I want to adjust my steering wheel we're going to count the presses together ready so one yeah two three four then I can adjust myself so four digital buttons to move my steering wheel and and so I'm sorry well I'm gonna okay go ahead go ahead yeah once you've done that yeah it saves you as your driver and then you can just select your driver and it will remember everything from your seat position to the steering wheel position yes but beat a bit occasionally if you're moving things or Towing things you want to adjust your mirror and in that moment you can press four buttons you can press four buttons yeah annoy it yeah listen but the thing is is that these buttons right here yeah do so many different things I don't like this much mystery in my life okay I don't I don't need it okay listen we just went to a great Mexican food place right oh it's delicious yeah it was amazing it was like in a mall but it was like it wasn't authentic I don't think but it was good and they had unlimited nachos and salsa yeah which is like I think a borderline fetish for me at this point um and but I ordered a taco and in the taco was a serrano chili that no one told me about and it was a surprise that I didn't I know a lot of you guys probably put those on your cereal for breakfast but for me I just I cannot have that level of mystery in my life I cannot do spices I can't do steering wheel buttons I don't know what they do I've pitched in the idea of doing hot ones throttle house Edition he said he won't get past the first sauce so that's why you've been denied that piece of content I will say the good thing about all of this some of these issues that I'm having right now can be fixed with over-the-air updates yes some of them not all of them but no otherwise I really do like the minimalist style of everything I like it's very squeaky but I like I like the I like the vibe of this whole and that's a stupid word no it's very likable you feel like you're in an REI or yeah or a mountain coming Co-op yes and it it feels like the ultimate version of a Subaru that never came to be never came to pass yeah yeah exactly it meets we've said Subaru meets pole star that's kind of pretty much what is what this is yeah I I complain about it because there's a few things that I don't like but overall I really really like well the truck version of this I'd take I'd take that one you take the truck I'd take the truck yeah yeah that's because though your perfect version of this is one seat in the middle of the thing and can it tow an E46 car a broken BMW yes but for everyone else who might have more than three friends the SUV works really well and even at the 90 grand ish I don't think it's crazy I you know that's Bronco Raptor level a bit quicker way quicker the off-road Powers is really very good yeah over 500 kilometers of range is pretty good yep yeah it's solid it's solid if you got one and if you've got one for 70 grand you're laughing yeah from so many angles the rivion r1s is highly impressive its power numbers for under 100 Grand are pretty much unheard of and despite eating all the Cliff Bars in California it can run with the best of the gas SUVs no problem the range with the 21 inch wheels is competitive and the cabin is well thought out and good looking as an electric three-row passenger vehicle it triumphs but the ride even in the softest setting could be more settled the infotainment could be more intuitive and if your plan is to tow with it well it can tow up to 7 700 pounds but as with all electric vehicles Towing decimates the range so if you're Thomas you're probably not going to get from the track to the repair garage with the BMW a BMW IX and a Tesla Model X are more car-like this feels different it's higher up it's more off-road oriented but despite its capabilities it doesn't come off like a Bronco Raptor or a Wrangler 392 either it's not that hardcore the truth is it actually slots somewhere in between it feels a lot more like an electric Land Rover Defender that's about to get its own Netflix free soloing documentary and some might consider that a very cool thing indeed thanks for watching [Music]

Channel: Throttle House

Views: 753,781

Keywords: 2023 rivian r1s review, rivian r1s vs r1t, rivian r1s range test, rivian r1s charge, rivian r1s pov, rivian r1s 0-60, rivian r1s quad motor, rivian dual motor, rivian r1s adventure, rivian gear tunnel, rivian storage, rivian ev, ev truck, best ev suv, 2023 ev, 2023 ev review, best range ev, rivian r1s vs model x, rivian vs tesla, rivian r1s vs bmw ix, rivian r1s vs model y, rivian vs raptor, rivian vs trx, rivian vs lucid, rivian walkaround, ev reliability

Id: fOyeZ09WYOs

Length: 16min 50sec (1010 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 11 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/redditUserError404]

$100,000 USD and no apple car play.

What a freaking joke.

They showed an example of the built in map and it didn’t even have the lake right next to them as a searchable destination. It took apple and android years of dedication to work out kinks in maps… I don’t expect car companies to be anywhere near as good ever.

[u/TunaOnWytNoCrust]

Fine, I'll watch one of these car guys with arms crossed videos.

[u/burntcookie90]

What a bummer about the intro. This is an unfortunate thing to ask, but what software version were y’all on? Last years December update had significant ride quality updates.

The mid screen overuse is real, but their steering wheel modification were incorrect. You can tap your profile name and then Steering Wheel. Better than most “full digital” controls.

[u/JimBeefLakeMonster]

People buying unfinished cars is setting a really bad example to the industry

[u/Ultra-sphinx]

2023 Rivian R1S Review // The Tesla Bronco Defender

2022 Rivian R1T Review // The Cybertruck That Actually Exists

2022 Lucid Air Review // Tesla’s Living Nightmare

Hmm, im sensing a pattern haha. Well, that aside, i've always found it interesting that Rivians have stand out steering feel. I remember Jason Cammisa stating that the R1T has low speed steering feel rivaling even the best Porsches. I really want to know how Rivian's engineers managed to give two boat anchors steering communication when so many modern sporty vehicles are lifeless.

[u/daxelkurtz]

This is very close to my ideal vehicle. I strongly considered putting in an order. But I decided not to.

WHY:

-I work remotely, and I often live out of my car for days at a time so I can wander while I work.

-I hike almost every day, I'm an on-call wilderness first responder, and I hunt in season, so I go on horrible dirt roads and rocky trails just all the damn time.

-My girlfriend lives in a fully solar-powered home, and if we decide to move in together then I am promptly breaking ground on a solar-powered cabin in the mountains.

As such, my ideal vehicle is a spacious and offroad-y SUV. But it's also an EV, so I can A) charge it for free, B) use it as a big battery for charging my laptop and camping stuff, C) free up the frunk for more storage, and D) stop carrying around 60lbs worth of fuckin' portable power stations whenever I go romping.

Oh, and E, not have to worry about my catalytic converter getting stolen!

So like... this. My ideal vehicle is fucking this. Right?

WHY NOT:

1) The price. Fuck me, dude - if you go below 100k you get even less range and no 4WD. For that price I could pick up a brand new 4Runner TRD Offroad and save 60 THOUSAND DOLLARS - 70 if I buy used!

But the EV is cheaper to run, right? At a conservative 16mpg and $3.50 per gallon, a 4Runner will cost me about 22k in gas and oil over 100,000 miles. Assuming the EV has $0 cost to drive - I charge it 100% on my own solar - I'd still have to drive the R1S for 300,000 miles to break even on the purchase. At the amount I drive, that'd take 30 years.

But even that's not right, because:

2) BATTERY LONGEVITY. My understanding is that 10 years / 100,000 miles is going to be really pushing it for an EV battery. My understanding is that, right now, replacing EV batteries costs a god damned fortune. Like, 20k or more. Which is as much or more as the cost of the gas that a 1GR-FE will drink in the same period.

This means that, even if electricity is literally free, the EV has the same running cost as a gas-guzzling 4Runner!

3) Dependability. If I bought a 4Runner or a half-ton pickup, I would know what I was getting. It would be pretty dependable. It will last me 10 years and it will probably go 20+. And it will have parts available for probably that entire lifecycle. And it will have a rich aftermarket. And any random mechanic will know how to work on it.

I just don't know enough with Rivian yet. It's a pretty new manufacturer, a brand new model, and that makes it awful hard to justify a price tag that could get me a 4Runner... and a 3.0 Supra too!

4) It's too fancy inside. It's not that I don't need it - I actively don't want it. My use case is "dirty, dirty boy." Give me the Bronco's marine vinyl or the Jeep's 1980s MacDonald's interior any day.

5) If I'm going to drive an iMac it at least better have Apple CarPlay, I mean, my dudes. My. Dudes.

CONCLUSION:

My sincere hope is that there will soon be an an EV SUV (or reg-bed pickup), with quad motors and decent clearance, that comes with an easily washable (or just, shitty) interior, and doesn't cost as much as a GTS4.0.

I'm guessing it's gonna be a while. I might be holding my breath forever and a day. But until then, or until they take the handles off the gas-pumps, think I'm sticking with ICE.

Anyway, that was my thinking!

[u/Noobasdfjkl]

Is this the first TH vid without a silly intro?

[u/AggravatingZone991]

Throttle House Hot Ones video when?

[u/brendanode]

Is it just me or did they nitpick this thing for 15 minutes and then at the end said it was unbeatable