Rivian R1s – Adventure awaits in the Rocky Mountain town of Salida, Colorado. Summer rafting, winter skiing, biking and year-round brewing are the gateway to high mountain fun at 7,000 feet above sea level.
It’s also an area where Rivias outnumber Teslas by at least two to one. That seemed to be the case when I arrived with the 2023 Rivian R1S, the three-row SUV counterpart to the R1T adventure pickup. I came to play with my brother-in-law and sister, who moved to Salida last year and traded their Dual Motor Tesla Model 3 for an R1T last month.
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Rivian’s large presence in a small corner of the world proves that it appeals to its target demo, outdoor enthusiasts. With an air suspension that provides 15 inches of ground clearance and a Quad-Motor system that provides 10 drive modes, including five off-road, the Rivian siblings possess the perfect blend of uncompromising adventure and eco-friendliness. exploration.
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Salida has less than 6,000 people, but hundreds of thousands of tourists live here. It also houses the Rivian Adventure Network with four 215kW DC fast chargers and three 11kW Level 2 chargers that run on 100% renewable energy, according to Rivian.
My family’s R1T can carry a paddle board, their bed holds a camera, and their gear tunnel holds most of our overnight camping gear. There’s no way we could do that with their Model 3.
But first I had to cross the Rockies at dusk during a heavy rain that drenched the peaks and washed out the single lane road.
I left the cattle town of Berthoud, Colorado on a Rivian R1S ATV with the Adventure Package, which includes 20-inch wheels shod with 34-inch Pirelli Scorpion all-terrain tires. With this configuration and the 135 kWh big block, the EPA estimates a range of 274 miles on a fully charged battery. I have 84% capacity left and 188 miles to my destination according to my trip computer.
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Since the Rivian doesn’t offer Apple CarPlay or Android Auto compatibility, I obsessively checked the distance on my phone’s Google Maps against the Rivian’s estimate of stops in Boulder. My last EV ride in the Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV 580—one of the few three-row electric SUVs currently on sale—taught me how to minimize risk and avoid variables beyond my control. By both estimates, I would have about 40 miles. But I will climb about 1,700 feet before returning to Salida Valley. And there are always variables.
For starters, I keep it in Sport mode, one of the five main driving modes along with Conserve, Snow, All-Purpose and Off-Road, with five more driving modes ranging from Rally and Rock Crawl to Towing.
These five main modes adjust the air suspension accordingly, with five more settings the driver can override, from 15.0 inches of ground clearance to 9.5 inches in the most efficient mode.
The driver can manually adjust three other drive settings: the ride quality can be firm or soft; regen can be high or standard; stability control can be enabled, reduced or disabled. This is done via a 15.6-inch touchscreen that flows horizontally into an 11.8-inch digital instrument cluster in a rectangular wood-trimmed panel. A small strip of icons below the speedometer in the cluster shows all these settings at a glance, so the larger touchscreen can be used for navigation or around-view camera angles or most other car functions.
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There was a lot to play with, but after an hour of driving I had the perfect front-cruising setup: Sport mode with a soft ride and high revs. With a massive battery powering two motors on both axles, the R1S produces 835 horsepower and 908 lb-ft of torque. It goes from 0 to 60 mph in about three seconds, but it doesn’t fixate me in my seat or make me question my lunch. And all that torque, which adds up to about 7,000 pounds, causes ATVs to scratch at launch.
At speed, power remained adequate, but it didn’t rush too harshly, and the high-rev setting never got too much. It was smooth sailing, for the most part. Hitting the accelerator felt a little shaky, like I was asking what’s up boy?
Rivian says the R1T and R1S are identical from the B-pillar up, and while they share the same mechanics, there is a difference in ride quality.
The R1S is 16.3 inches shorter in length and 14.6 inches shorter in wheelbase. The double-wishbone front and multi-link rear suspension are the same, as is the hydraulic anti-roll bar system, which effectively acts as an anti-roll bar for the front and rear axles. This provides greater articulation off-road and limits body roll on the road. In side-by-side testing with the R1T, the R1S SUV had slightly more pavement hop and cornering leaner.
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On twisty roads I’m less inclined to push it harder. Sport mode on Firm mutes some of the bounce and lean, and compared to other three-row SUVs, it feels more like a sport utility vehicle.
The lightning tridents revealed lightning bolts that killed the tree line. By 6:30pm it was dark and raining enough to blur the lane markings and scatter the occasional headlight or taillight.
I put it in universal mode and then stopped fiddling to focus. I felt very solid and solid, all four tires flat on the track, so I continued on, skipping the switchback where the other cars stopped, convinced that the conditions would only get worse as the night wore on.
The increase in confidence comes not only from the driving system, but also from the technology. Even when my phone was out of service, the graphics on the map display remained high and the range and battery estimates varied between modes and terrain.
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Throughout my five-day trip, I was increasingly impressed with the accuracy and reliability of Rivian’s proprietary software and interface. I’ve tested enough EVs to rely solely on battery percentage, but having a relevant and accurate mileage range removed all kinds of anxiety. It made a big difference in comfort when switching between modes and suspension, when riding in downpours, and when dealing with sudden elevation changes and 50-degree temperature changes.
I have 25% battery left, or 80 miles in economy mode. The only anxiety I felt was the weather.
I charge it overnight in the comfort of my sister’s garage. They are repurposing their Tesla wall unit to 240 volts 48 amps with a J1772 adapter. In this setup, the R1S is charged to a maximum of 11.5kW, the highest of the three possible amperages, for about 25mph. (The minimum is 32 amps at 7.7 kW, or about 16 mph.)
A few days later, before I left, I charged it for free in the town of Salida. Adventure Network’s seven ports are in the shadow of a Safeway supermarket, right next to an old railroad bike path. We followed the screams and shouts of the Arkansas River as it flows through town and then walked around to eat, so I can’t confirm if it delivered the 140 miles in 20 minutes that Rivian claims. However, it charged relatively quickly, with a maximum output of 178.4 kW, despite the 95-degree heat. It went from 65% to 95% in 45 minutes, delivering 42.3kW of total juice.
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It only took about 20 minutes on the Jeep’s dusty roads to get out of Salida and switch from Sport to Off-Road mode. I switch to Rally mode, which lowers the stability control, so I can spit more rooster tails at the sinking R1T van behind me.
We explored a narrower, rocky, deeply rutted trail that was not driven by cars. We put the tires on and scrambled through the ditch, slicing through boulders with our 15.0 inches of ground clearance in crawl mode and the articulated, slid ladders thanks to the air suspension. It’s not too extreme on the R1T which is still full of toys. The only traffic we encountered were SUVs with one driver having to pull over to let us pass.
That is, until we encountered a trail user who hadn’t missed us: a large bull leading a herd of cattle across a flowing creek. There were showdowns. We waited silently. They filled the trail, swatting flies, chewing gum. He watched, observing his companions, as if drawn by the eyes of a Rivian robot. We made a 15-point turnaround and got out.
The R1S was easier because the turning radius was about four feet smaller. With its shorter wheelbase and shorter rear, the R1S makes the best SUV on paper with a launch angle of 34.3 degrees (30.0 in the R1T) and a best breaking angle of 29.6 degrees (26.4 in the R1T). They can both go through three feet of water, but we haven’t tested that yet. The only thing they can’t seem to do is
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