As the title states I finally got to test drive my first EV yesterday, the Rivian R1S and thought I would share a with you a synopsis of my thoughts. The test drive was done at Rivian's service center in Dallas, Tx. I had to schedule this about a month out but it was such a nice, hassle free way to check out a vehicle compared to going to the dealership and rolling the dice on how they are going to treat you for just wanting to take a test drive.
I had pretty high expectations for these based on their price and reviews from various publications, youtubers, and personal anecdotes shared on reddit and other forums. Starting with the exterior I personally like the styling and while I am not the most eagle eyed person I do have a tendency to not be able to "un-see" something once a flaw is pointed out. In this case my tester appeared to be fine with regards to assembly but I immediately went looking for the orange peel in the paint based on someones recent comments about it that I had read elsewhere and sure enough it was there on pretty much every panel. This would drive me up the wall for a nearly 6 figure vehicle. Hope to see their paint quality improve over time.
Moving to the interior this was IMO the highlight of the car. Nice, comfortable leather seating. The mix of wood and modern/milmalist materials inside make for a aesthecially pleasing cabin. It all felt screwed together nice and tight as well. Lot's of storage space including the frunk, as well the rear. Seats fold mostly flat for the big loads, a mattress, kennel, etc. Bonus points for having a split tailgate!
As for actual driving impressions this is where things need improvement IMO. For as nice as the cabin looks and feels inside, I did not find it to be all that well insulated. There was quite a bit of road noise, on par with my moms Honda CRV I had recently been driving. I would expect this out of a $20k car, not a $100k one. Also the ride quality was not good. Dallas has it's fair share of bad roads which we got to showcase during the test drive and the R1S felt stiff as a board hitting pot holes, crossing train tracks, and other surface changes. Even when it was in the standard or "comfort" mode the ride quality again felt like something in a $20k bare bones car, not a 6 figure premium one. I think they really need to work on their suspension tuning for future models as it's just not up to par yet with anything else in it's class. Couple other notes... being my first time to actually drive and not ride along in a EV I did not have enough time to fully adjust to the throttle response and one pedal driving mechanics used in these so it felt very awkward at first. I'm sure this would just become normal after a few days behind the wheel but initially I did not like it. Also physical controls for climate, radio, steering wheel, etc are superior to having everything integrated in a touch screen and I will die on this hill. Last but not least, thumbs down for no CarPlay because Rivian thinks their OS and Nav is better (it's not).
Overall I think they have a good platform here but it definitely can and needs to be improved upon like any first generation of product, even moreso from a start up company. If you can score a deal on a used R1 model it may be worth it but I just don't think they are quite worth the full asking price in their current state. I will however continue following them and be interested in seeing what comes out with the R2 models rumored to be here starting in 2025.
I had pretty high expectations for these based on their price and reviews from various publications, youtubers, and personal anecdotes shared on reddit and other forums. Starting with the exterior I personally like the styling and while I am not the most eagle eyed person I do have a tendency to not be able to "un-see" something once a flaw is pointed out. In this case my tester appeared to be fine with regards to assembly but I immediately went looking for the orange peel in the paint based on someones recent comments about it that I had read elsewhere and sure enough it was there on pretty much every panel. This would drive me up the wall for a nearly 6 figure vehicle. Hope to see their paint quality improve over time.
Moving to the interior this was IMO the highlight of the car. Nice, comfortable leather seating. The mix of wood and modern/milmalist materials inside make for a aesthecially pleasing cabin. It all felt screwed together nice and tight as well. Lot's of storage space including the frunk, as well the rear. Seats fold mostly flat for the big loads, a mattress, kennel, etc. Bonus points for having a split tailgate!
As for actual driving impressions this is where things need improvement IMO. For as nice as the cabin looks and feels inside, I did not find it to be all that well insulated. There was quite a bit of road noise, on par with my moms Honda CRV I had recently been driving. I would expect this out of a $20k car, not a $100k one. Also the ride quality was not good. Dallas has it's fair share of bad roads which we got to showcase during the test drive and the R1S felt stiff as a board hitting pot holes, crossing train tracks, and other surface changes. Even when it was in the standard or "comfort" mode the ride quality again felt like something in a $20k bare bones car, not a 6 figure premium one. I think they really need to work on their suspension tuning for future models as it's just not up to par yet with anything else in it's class. Couple other notes... being my first time to actually drive and not ride along in a EV I did not have enough time to fully adjust to the throttle response and one pedal driving mechanics used in these so it felt very awkward at first. I'm sure this would just become normal after a few days behind the wheel but initially I did not like it. Also physical controls for climate, radio, steering wheel, etc are superior to having everything integrated in a touch screen and I will die on this hill. Last but not least, thumbs down for no CarPlay because Rivian thinks their OS and Nav is better (it's not).
Overall I think they have a good platform here but it definitely can and needs to be improved upon like any first generation of product, even moreso from a start up company. If you can score a deal on a used R1 model it may be worth it but I just don't think they are quite worth the full asking price in their current state. I will however continue following them and be interested in seeing what comes out with the R2 models rumored to be here starting in 2025.