Rivian R1T
100 Rivian Motorway, Normal, IL
Last updated
The Rivian R1T launched in 2021 as the first all-electric pickup truck to reach production from any manufacturer, beating far larger and better-funded rivals — Ford's F-150 Lightning and Tesla's own Cybertruck among them — to market by months, a genuinely significant milestone for a company that had been operating in relative obscurity for over a decade before its 2018 public unveiling. Its quad-motor variant, with one electric motor independently driving each wheel, delivered a genuinely novel off-road capability called "tank turn," letting the truck rotate close to its own footprint by spinning the wheels on each side in opposite directions — a maneuver no gasoline or diesel truck's mechanical drivetrain could physically replicate, and one Rivian marketed specifically to distinguish the R1T from its eventual gasoline and electric competitors alike. The truck's "gear tunnel," a lockable storage compartment running through the body between the cab and the bed, made creative use of space freed up by the absence of a traditional driveshaft and exhaust system, becoming one of the R1T's most distinctive and frequently cited practical features among reviewers and owners. Built at Rivian's plant in Normal, Illinois — a former Mitsubishi Motors factory the company acquired and retooled — the R1T's head start on the electric-pickup category, combined with backing and early investment from Amazon and Ford, made it one of the most closely watched new vehicle launches of the early 2020s and the truck most directly responsible for proving genuine consumer demand existed for a fully electric pickup before any legacy truck manufacturer had one on sale.
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- Top 6 Electric Cars of All Time
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