[Rock Music playing]
Behind me I have a brand new Rivian R1S, which has some very distinct differences when compared
to the Rivian R1T. The biggest of which, it has quite a bit more seats and quite a bit less truck.
Honestly it's quite a bit smaller than I was expecting, at 17 inches shorter than the truck,
it has a smaller wheelbase which means it's better for off-roading since those wheels
are closer together. You can see both vehicles are the exact same right up until the b-pillar.
And then we see that the Rivian truck is 17 inches longer than the SUV. Rivian let me borrow this for
a week which is brave of them considering what happened last time they let me borrow a vehicle.
Oh man.
I think you and I should rendezvous at the top of the mountain so we
can inspect the interior of the R1S for the first time together,
and we can talk a little bit more about that mistake I think I made. Let's get started.
[Intro]
So I've been driving my own white Rivian
pickup for the last 6 months and I have about 5,000 miles on it. And since both vehicles,
even though this one is 17 inches shorter, both vehicles still share the same quad motors and
the same battery pack, with the same 800 horsepower and 900 pound feet of torque,
I feel right at home inside of the Rivian R1S. It is very familiar. However,
one major difference though is how much the vehicles can tow. My truck can tow
11,000 pounds, while the Rivian R1S can only tow 7,700. And I mean don't get me wrong, 7,700 pounds
is still very impressive. That's a full size wakeboarding boat and more towing capacity than
say a 4-runner. So it just really depends on what you're doing with the vehicle, whether you want
to carry more people, or you want it to be able to tow things. Everyone's different and every vehicle
is made for different things. And of course, both vehicles have the same 0-60 of around 3 seconds.
One of the things that I like about electric vehicles is that they're a lot less moving parts,
which means less things that can go wrong and less maintenance over the lifespan of the vehicle.
And while there are thousands and thousands of lithium batteries underneath the vehicle, they
are entirely sealed and watertight, giving the R1S the ability to ford water up to 3 feet deep.
Now personally I'm not going to treat this loaner vehicle like a boat,
but it's nice knowing that it has the ability. And with less moving
parts and no explosions under the hood, it's also just super quiet.
Probably shouldn't be doing this but there's this little cul-de-sac thing that's probably
made for side-by-sides, but with the battery pack being underneath the Rivian we have a
super low center of gravity, which means we shouldn't be tipping. Oh geez. Whoo!
As far as range goes, the truck has 314 miles of range according to the EPA. And the Rivian R1S,
the SUV, has 316. Now I'm not sure why there's a 2 mile difference but I think it's because of the
aerodynamics. When you're driving an electric vehicle the aerodynamics are quite a bit more
important. Along with aerodynamics, another very important factor is the tires. If you decide to go
with the all-terrain tires it subtracts 40 miles of range from your battery because they aren't
as efficient as the street tires. It leaves you with about 270 miles of range instead of 314. And
I find this to be true when I'm driving my truck around. But even with that subtraction in range,
I find myself only charging up about once a week and still never going to a gas station.
You might be asking, 'Hey Jerry, how come tires don't matter as much when I'm driving around my
regular gas powered vehicle?' And that's due to efficiency. Gas powered vehicles are only about
30% efficient. So when you toss on some really big knobby, squishy tires, it doesn't affect
your range all that much because you're already so low on the efficiency scale. However, electric
vehicles are 90% efficient so when you have things like a trailer or aerodynamics, or squishy, knobby
off-road tires, it does subtract from your overall range. But it still leaves you with 270 miles. Not
27...270. Which is still quite a bit. Like I said earlier, it all depends on what you're
going to use the vehicle for, and really since there's the ability to charge it up every night,
unless you're driving more than 250 miles a day, it doesn't really matter all that much.
Personally, I live in Utah where the weather is a little bit sketchy through the winter,
and I enjoy the look of the knobby tires so I'm happy that I have them on my truck.
But if you're going to commute a lot, you might want to think about the street tires,
that way you can squeak out every mile of range possible from the Rivian.
It's kind of fun as we drive down this hill, the truck is actually taking power from the
motors as we slow down instead of using the brakes and putting it back into the battery
pack. We should have more fuel in the tank at the bottom of the hill than what we had at the top.
So now that we're here, let's jump in the back seat together. Same door knobs that we saw on the
truck, and the same seats that we see in the truck with about the same leg room. But it's
the seats back here that we're interested in. If we press this button here...alright
so to get access back here...so I assume that these are not meant for adult sized humans. So
I'm about 6 feet tall, about 200 pounds, and when I bring the seats back...when I bring the seats
back into the regular position I still have quite a bit of leg room. The Rivian R1S has room for 5
carseats, which means it's a great vehicle for people here in Utah, and if you need to, it can
fit full sized adults. My dad is currently driving a Toyota 4-Runner which has 5 seats in it,
and this R1S has about the same footprint. I think it's 9 inches longer and has two additional seats.
The seats back here have the first sunroof as well as their own additional sunroof just for
them. We have our own cup holders as well as a slot with a USB-C port, our own air conditioning.
And if we come over here, it looks like the heating elements from the rear window also
run along this back glass. So in cold weather these back windows should defrost on their own.
Making our way around to the rear. It's interesting that this
tailgate is actually split. We have the upper half here, and a lower half here if you want
to hang out and have a seat. Over here we have a plug. We're currently charging up some batteries.
And we have the air compressor which is the same thing we see in the truck. If you remember from
my Rivian teardown video, there is probably a 6 inch diameter tube about 4 feet in length that
holds a bunch of air that raises and lowers the suspension. At its lowest we have a few fingers
worth of space between the wheel. And the wheel well at its lowest I think the suspension is
about 9 inches. And at its highest is just about 15 inches depending on what drive mode you're in.
And all the way up we have quite a bit more space. Today we spent most of the day in off-road mode.
Back here as well we have tie downs which is very convenient for the bed space back here. We have 4
of them that are adjustable along rails, as well as these nifty buttons which drop down
the middle seats all by themselves. And then we have those drop down giving us full access
inside. And if I remember correctly, this can slide up giving hs a flat surface to sleep on.
Below this panel is where we get the air compressor hose as well as I was told...
there's a spare tire back here. This obviously is not a full size – it looks more like a spare,
but it is very nice that we have it. None of the Tesla's come with a spare tire so it's nice to see
it here. And we do have the flashlight. If you remember there are 7,776 batteries underneath
the Rivian – we did count- and the battery inside of this flashlight is the 7,777th.
Sitting here in the driver's seat it feels the exact same as my truck with the main display,
display off to the side, volume adjusting. But over here we have two buttons on the stock,
one for the front windshield wipers and then one for the rear windshield wipers. I've made
a few videos on my Rivian truck already, so if you want a deeper dive into everything Rivian,
you can check out those. Obviously, I'm a little biased since I own a Rivian,
but overall I'm very impressed with the Rivian R1S. I think it really just boils down to what
you're going to use the vehicle for. If you need more seats or like camping in your vehicle,
the R1S is probably the way to go. But if you need a truck bed and the ability to tow
11,000 pounds, then we have the R1T. And I don't regret buying my R1T. After 5,000 miles I'm still
very happy with that decision. But the mistake I did make was being a little too conservative
with the color. The more I see the Rivian Blue and the Rivian Yellow, I'm thinking you only live once
and it might be fun to have a vehicle that's a little bit more vibrant. White is very safe
along with black and the regular colors, but I do wish I would have gotten a little bit more out of
the box with my own vehicle. An exciting exterior color would match the exciting power just a tad
bit more. But let me know what you think. Would you go with a conservative color, or would you
go loud and proud and super vibrant with your next vehicle. Let me know down in the comments.
Come hang out with me on Instagram and Twitter. And
thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you around.
[Music playing]