I LOVE and HATE My Rivian R1T | One Year Review Of The Best EV Truck

just over one year ago now I took delivery of my rivan r1t since rivan is and was such a new company at the time I didn't quite know what to expect I was excited since reviews of this car were great but I was also taking delivery of a VIN just under 11,000 in the last 13 months we've done a lot with this truck some days it's just a simple Drive other days we haul some cargo and fill it to the brim and other days we attempt a road trip overall it's a fantastic vehicle it's super practical and all the fancy features it brings are useful but there are plenty of things to keep in mind when buying the r1t for some they may be deal breakers today I'm going to break down my full experience with the r1t in the last year talk about everything I love everything I hate and what I'm excited for in the future so let's get into it first off let's break down the exact truck I purchased it's the r1t adventure package trim quad motor all-wheel drive Black Mountain interior large pack battery with forest green paint and 20-in alra terrain bright wheels these are large Wheels meant for off-roading that we have really only used like twice so I'm not sure the range reduction of around 60 Mi actually proved our best move here still they look great but for the average driver the stock wheels with the best EPA range number might be the best option more on that and charging later today rivan has changed a lot there was a price increase on this truck and they've introduced their own dual motor all-wheel drive powertrain this is made inhouse by rivan and according to most people testing it they found that it makes the Quad motor system seem like Overkill it also enables you to choose between three battery sizes the standard pack gets a 270 M EPA range and the max pack increases the range to 400 Mi with stock wheels for me I love the look of this truck when I see one rolling down the freeway in either direction I think it stands out in a beautiful way the front and rear light bars are a great touch and it's definitely a compact truck for this review instead of an overview and then sections on the good and bad I'll just break down every part of this car with its features and give my experience with them as we go as can tend to happen with a review in this style I'll be zeroing in on the issues I have with aspects of this truck so that people get a realistic picture sometimes it can be off balance for me to be pointing out issues and then talk about how much I love this truck that's mainly because it's just not too useful for me to repeatedly say this part of the truck is great over and over and over for everything else that's fine so as we go here keep that in [Music] mind on the r1t you have four normal doors and then the rest of the truck adds a lot because it's designed from the ground up to be electric already with the doors I have one small issue not a single person that rides in the passenger seat is capable of closing it hard enough on the first try this is something I'll follow up with service about because it's everybody and it requires almost a slam on top of this anytime it rains water gets completely stored in these doors this is common but the rivan drain plug seems to be plugged so they just don't work for the next next day or two after Heavy Rain you can hear water sloshing around back and forth inside the truck as you speed up or slow down here's a clip of that many have this issue and it should be fine if you drain it but still the front trunk is massive opens en closes electronically and has a really convenient shelf that you can lift up and place out of the way when not needed it holds there with magnets the charge port is on the left front of this truck meaning that's the direction you need to park this car to charge then there are two gear tunnel doors leading to this extra space that Almost Doesn't fully make sense it can come in extremely handy though for specific cargo and it's accessible from the interior as well one issue I've had here is that they release fine but if I try to release them from the screen they always partially release then I have to go close them and reopen them with the button on the outside of the truck I just defaulted this button now but it's a weird bug these gear tunnel doors are particularly useful for getting into the truck bed but I am still nearly at the point of petitioning rivan to change this design the door has such a sharp corner on it that when you're getting out of the bed it could be an incredibly easy way to destroy your leg if they just rounded off this Edge problem solved the truck bed itself is 4 and 1/2 ft and includes a huge subed area capable of fitting a full size spare one complaint here is that this storage area can stick pretty badly sometimes I unlatch it and then I really have to put in some muscle in an awkward way with my fingers to actually get it open also in the better outlets in an air compressor with a hose that can reach all of the tires then my r1t has a powered tono cover shortly after taking delivery of mine rivan fully discontinued this cover because it was so bad it broke on so many customers and for me it's always a little scary to use it's a big complaint but if you're buying new it won't matter it's not an option or it will be with a totally redesigned version in 2024 mine will get stuck a few inches open periodically and it's always a funny thing when showing people this truck oh wow can I check out your truck yeah I'm expecting that rivian will replace this with the new one next year with the bed open though it's a fully functional truck and we've definitely made use of this we've picked up furniture furniture from Ikea Landscaping things and I've helped people move among other [Music] things to get inside the rivan's handles pop out on approach with the key fob or phone app and this works with mixed reliability it always seems to be the time that I approach the car with my hands full that the door handles just don't open and I have to fully reach into my pocket and pull out my phone this has gotten better throughout ownership but it's still not perfect even though I always keep the app running in the background I'd say my model y gets this R about 90% of the time and the rivan about 60% those are educated guesses up front the r1t has a beautiful interior it's a mix of faux leather and Darkwood accents they have other options now but it seems like this interior is going to be the standard one going forward they definitely took a lot of inspiration from Tesla with minimal buttons on the steering wheel and then two screens the gauge cluster is beautiful and works really well and the center screen does as well there you have Maps climate controls music drive mode settings cameras and more one great thing about rivan is that like Tesla they push regular software updates some Brands promise software updates and then they come once in a blue moon but rivan is regularly bringing out updates with truly useful features this car continues getting better from an interface perspective but also a drive perspective a recent update just improved ride Comfort on my truck there are two stocks buttons and scroll Wheels on the steering wheel window buttons and that's most of what you interface with off the screen the window buttons are actually not the best they feel a bit cheap and then hardly ever work as I expect I also had an issue the other day with a window wouldn't roll all the way back up this happened on the freeway and I didn't want to make the wind noise worse so once I got off the freeway I rolled it all the way down and then rolled it all the way back up with no problem problem the seats are comfortable heated and ventilated the center console is pretty deep and useful with cup holders that slide in and out but there are two complaints I have there one this is an ice box the AC traveling through this to rear passengers seems to leak quite a bit because whatever you put in there gets very cold if the AC is on then the wireless charger is a joke it looks great but then you place your phone there drive for a couple minutes and it slides right out of place I replaced this with a specifically designed mag safe charger and I recommend every rivan customer do this rivan's own wireless charger is one of those how did this make it to production kind of designs it's just pretty useless for storage there is no glove box so you'll have the center console the tiny compartments under each front seat or the door Pockets that are expandable in back there are three seats with the center seat turning into an armrest as needed there's a small screen for climate controls USBC ports near that screen and on the back of each headrest seat back pockets and then one of the best things in this truck the glass roof from the back this provides a great View and it improves Headroom for all passengers there are also hooks on the backs of the front seats handles for every seat and door pockets all around I've been using the rivan all-weather floor mats but a weird complaint here is that they actually smell a lot like a factory it took around a month for the smell to dissipate and they still have that smell that among many other advantages has led me to switch to different floor mats which I'll detail in a future accessories video all around the truck there are speakers for the sound system I bought when this still had the merid sound system and it's all right I honestly prefer my model wise sound system to this from a Clarity perspective but rivan now ships this with their own inh housemade system this could mean that it has actually gotten better since they can dial it in with software over time and have complete control those are the main parts of the truck inside and out especially for a first vehicle from a new EV startup it's built incredibly well when I get in it just feels like a very nice truck and it definitely is the materials are well crafted and it's put together well when driving on the the freeway though that's when you'll notice wind noise wind noise is a lot the cabin itself is extremely quiet when I honk the horn I almost don't even know that I honked because it does such a great job isolating there but wi absolutely gets into the seams brand new manufacturer so it makes sense and overall it's great but that ends up being quite a lot on the freeway here's a clip one of the biggest pieces of the r1t is the screen it handles most of what you do so let's dive in there the UI and overall responsiveness of the r1t screen are fantastic it's easily one of the best out there and I'd put it second to Tesla it also keeps improving in all of the ways you want it to be it was annoying to not be able to customize the dock so rivan fixed that it only had Spotify now it has title it didn't have dash cam now it does there are tons of things like this that rivan has fixed after customer feedback and it's a great part about this software approach for maps I had some big issues here but this has actually improved a lot as well rivan's maps are built off of mapbx so it doesn't use the best or most accurate traffic data and sometimes routes are abnormal my bugs of the car randomly jumping forward or it recalculating at random times have been fixed though at this point though if it's a long important drive on a tight timeline I do pull out my phone with Google Maps to compare but usually default to rivian's Maps while the overall experience here is great certain software things are randomly extremely slow sometimes you open something up like drive mode for the first time since driving and it takes a full 5 seconds or so to load up when you're driving engaging with the screen and want to change something like this this kind of startup time is pretty unacceptable and it just doesn't match the rest of the screen experience at all I think this could be a software update fix for climate controls these are pretty intuitive and they save to your profile so I hardly adjust them but the connection between where you drag events airflow and where it actually flows always seems a bit questionable it is nice to be able to adjust each vent individually from one spot though one feature I want rivian to add here though is a simple climate keeper mode they have this function but it's pet Comfort mode you turn this on to keep the climate the same when you go into the store real quick however if you don't have a pet that you're keeping in your car like me you just have to keep this imaginary pet comfortable so people who walk by my truck in this mode see that my pet is safe and comfortable since this is the only climate keeper mode one other big part of your experience with the r1t will be the phone app I use this as my main key and then engage with it for preconditioning charging info or seeing the latest software version this app has improved a lot and it's great to customize the temperature in preconditioning now or the charge percentage but it still could use a lot more functionality comparing it to something like the Tesla app there's a lot that this app cannot do but most important of all how does this truck [Music] drive it's awesome this is a very well-engineered and very well-made EV no truck can be it speed the 0 to 60 in 3 seconds is pretty unfathomable it handles great and has a ton of Versatility with all the different Drive modes raising and lowering suspension is quite useful and it particularly helps with driving comfort and then getting in or out easier thanks to Neil mode I love to drive this truck and rivan has done a great job with regen braking in particular overall it's a joy to drive and a very smooth ride visibility is also great thanks to the overhead 360 camera that you can bring up at any time when you don't want to ful handle driving though rivan has their driver assistance system called driver plus this system is pretty good on a long road trip with well-marked roads it will do a good job and take a lot of the stress off of you you have to be there ready to take over and nudge the wheel to prove that but it does a great job breaking and accelerating I'd still take Tesla autopilot over this from a functionality standpoint and reliability but the rivan is much more reasonable and smooth when slowing down and speeding up that said the system does have a few big flaws one is that the roads have to be pre-mapped so it isn't available everywhere as such the system will just cut out at the drop of a hat it alerts you when it's happening but there is basically no warning ahead of time when it has a problem it just disengages one time I was on the freeway and it was on a curve and it said take over immediately and then disengaged at that exact moment all of the sudden I was driving straight toward the wall there needs to be a far better warning system here and again this is something rivan might be fixing right now in software quote driver plus now generates a preemptive warning when a reduction in laneline visibility prevents Highway assist from sustaining performance another complaint here is that it always defaults to your current speed when initiating driver plus so if you plan to stay in this system for a while and traffic will speed up you have to scroll the speed each time you engage again though this has been fixed in the latest update allowing you to choose between speed limit or current speed this looks a lot like test the autopilot on screen but it's a bit more of a system to use once you know you'll be in your clearly marked Lane for a while and there isn't too much going on around you what's cool though is that it can get much better over time with software there are other weird quirks to this car like certain warnings that you don't quite know what to do with for one if you shift into reverse at too high of a speed it will pop up to tell you to slow down before shifting even though it shifted just fine in my opinion why don't they just lower the speed where I'm allowed to shift so that I can't even do that another one that randomly pops up is some form of your truck is Raising wait before driving to prevent damage usually this happens after I've been in the car for a little bit or I've already been driving what is this damage and why is this happening warnings like these are things that just make you question what's actually going on and things that I think rivan could design around then I park on a slight incline each night randomly when I go to back down my driveway the car just suddenly freaks out and fully shifts into park as I'm going down the hill it's jarring and I have no idea why it happens I've probably had this happen three times over the last year then I just shift back into reverse and resume it almost feels like I got in and drove too quickly and the car thought it was rolling so it just went into park to be safe again just don't let me drive yet if the system isn't ready for me to drive of course this all sounds like a lot because it's a lot to explain and it's much harder to talk a long time about how the rest of the time driving is great so please keep that in mind I overall love this truck and love driving it but there are these issues at hand that I experience periodically the thing is that none of this matters if you can't charge your truck and the rivan is currently subject to Third party charging we did a road trip in the r1t up to Northern California a few months ago and it was a pretty terrible experience the driving was fun and comfortable but the charging was a nightmare we have literally not driven this car past its range since that trip and just charge it home instead as a whole because of this issue this truck is actually not something I recommend if you plan to drive distances it's just stressful to be at the mercy of thirdparty charging networks that are unreliable slow broken down or crowded it sucks but it is the reality right now and if that wasn't going to change I would tell you this is not a truck to buy luckily this is changing rivan is opening their own Chargers and they are expanding in useful areas their Chargers seem to be Fairly reliable and then in 2024 they're partnering with Tesla to allow rivan to charge at 12,000 plus superchargers that will immediately make this car far more practical and should make road trips a reliable blast as they should be in this car the last thing to consider with rivan is that they are still a very new company they are yet to be profitable and a long road ahead they are making great progress but as an owner part of the difficulty early on comes with service for me at my rivan delivery appointment there were a couple small issues like a panel misalignment under the truck a small scratch and other things I was told to just book a service appointment for that but what I didn't think about is the fact that service is 50 m away from me on top of that service is booked right now I'm trying to book service for a few issues like the water sloshing window issues and other things I talked about in this video but it's currently September and and I can't book an appointment until November if something needed fixing immediately there would be a lot of frustration there and it's similar to what it was like buying a Tesla even just a couple years ago it's booked for 2 months and over an hour away from my house luckily so far there hasn't been any maintenance for me and mobile service is coming to my house to fix the seat Bel recall from a few months ago so when there's a recall or something mandatory like that it does seem that mobile service can do it and bring it to you sometime in November I'll be heading to service for some of the issues I talked about in this video video shifting back to my overall experience with this truck in the past year though it has been great rivan has done a great job with this product and I'm particularly excited to see what's coming up soon for their R2 platform to check out that video you can click the link up here or in the description below thanks so much for watching and I'll see you on the next one

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Views: 37,442

Keywords: rivian, rivian r1t, tesla, ev, electric vehicle, ev road trip, tesla road trip, rivian road trip, rivian r1t charging, rivian charging, electrify america, ev charging, ev road trip charging, rivian experience, rivian review, rivian news, rivian rumors, rivian 2024, rivian 2025, 2025 rivian, rivian leaks, rivian r1t review, rivian r1t issues, rivian r1t problems, rivian problems, rivian good and bad, electric truck, electric truck experience

Id: 79z8Cmr52kk

Length: 17min 46sec (1066 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 01 2023