A day after revealing their electric pickup, Rivian reveals the R1S all-electric SUV.
It’s no secret that America loves pickup trucks, but America loves SUVs even more. The SUV has killed the sedan as America’s most popular vehicle shape, and every car manufacturer has a lineup filled with SUVs to cater to the American taste.
So when it comes to electric vehicles, it’s a race to see who can make the first battery-powered SUV. That race was ostensibly won by Tesla, but the Model X is a distinctly non-SUV-lookin’ SUV. Rival electric carmaker Rivian hopes to change the game with their brand new R1S SUV.
If you were paying as much attention to Rivian’s electric pickup launch (called the R1T) then you’ll see quite a bit of similarity between Rivian’s two products. The R1S has the same range, same acceleration, same power, same interior, and same wonky headlights as Rivian’s recently introduced pickup.
Not that any of that is a bad thing.
Just as on the R1T, the R1S has one electric motor per wheel to give it true torque vectoring and on-demand power. Zero to sixty can be as fast as 3 seconds on the mid-range 135 kWh battery model, with the extended range 180 kWh battery model getting a maximum range of up to 400 miles.
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About 700 horses ensure that the R1S can handle any kind of off-road environment, along with an underbody skid plate and a wading depth of up to 3 feet.
While the R1T had a big pickup bed, the R1S has interior storage for days. The entire rear row folds down to give the R1S incredible interior space, while the front gets something very few North American vehicles receive: a frunk. That’s a front trunk, which resides where normally the engine would be on a regular SUV. This means you can carry nearly twice as much stuff as a regular SUV.
So long as it’s under the maximum payload of 1,763 lbs.
The R1T pickup goes on sale in 2020, while the R1S follows in 2021. Pricing is said to start at $65,000 after the federal EV rebate, which isn’t exactly entry-level, but it’s at least as attainable as a Tesla.