2025 Rivian R1T Dual Performance Max First Test: Worth an Upgrade?
Are the R1T’s mostly under-the-hood changes and increased range enough to opt for the new model over a used one?
Pros
- More range than before
- Less expensive Max battery
- More future-proof platform
Cons
- Lane centering needs work
- No drivetrain updates
- Updates not immediately obvious
The 2025 Rivian R1T doesn’t look much different than last year’s R1T—if you can spot the differences at all—but it’s a different truck in some very important ways. The 2025 model kicks off the second generation of the 2022 MotorTrend Truck of the Year winner, marking the introduction of Rivian-built drive motors across all models, a three-motor R1T, and more outrageous power for the Quad.
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The new Tri out-powers the first-gen Quad, so it only makes sense that the Quad gets a big power boost to stay on top. But for 2025, the R1T Dual looks the same on paper. Its horsepower and torque are unchanged because the 2024 model came equipped with the new Enduro motors, designed and built in-house. Is it worth forking over a new-car price for the 2025 model, or is this the time to snag a used one while you wait for a bigger upgrade down the line?
What You Can See
Stick a 2024 and a 2025 R1T next to each other in one of those spot-the-differences games from a kid’s magazine, and you'd swear they printed the same picture twice. Look closer, and maybe you’ll notice the new 22-inch wheels that eschew the previous intricate geometric snowflake design for a smoother, more aerodynamic approach. Looking like Rivian’s interpretation of a base steel wheel, the modern design accented with white and yellow gives the R1T a fresh look.
Narrow your vision even more and aim it at the door handles: They’re reshaped so subtly that you still won’t notice until you open the door. The cable-operated handle has been replaced with electronic releases. The new handles require less effort to open but don’t feel as robust; they’re certainly not cheap, but the satisfaction of a cable-operated door is hard to mimic. The interior door handle is still cable-operated, but it’s only intended for emergencies. The metal handle is swapped for plastic, presumably because it doesn’t need to withstand day-to-day wear. Instead, Rivian wants everyone to use the new thumb button on the door.
Exterior lights are upgraded, too, but owners won’t notice the light bar unless the R1T is plugged in and charging. As for the headlights, Rivian’s new Adaptive Drive Beam technology dynamically adapts to oncoming traffic.
What You Can’t See
The big news for the new generation of Rivians is directed at the Rivian-built motors in the Quad and the new Tri. The Dual already featured them when it came out for the 2024 model year, but there is even more going on.
Although it’s not as exciting for the average consumer, the biggest news is Rivian’s new zonal electric architecture. The 17 ECUs in the first-generation truck have been whittled down to only seven, saving 1.6 miles of wiring in the process. Rivian says these updates will give second-generation trucks a 15 percent lower lifetime carbon footprint, and the savings in material and manufacturing should lead to 50 percent lower CO2 emissions.
The zonal architecture and its manufacturing efficiency will largely go unnoticed by consumers, but it will make more meaningful OTA updates possible and should help future-proof the new R1Ts.
Range Updates
Although power increases and major design changes weren't part of the mandate with the new truck, the R1T Dual does have much better range estimates than before, both with the EPA and in our real-world testing. The previous 2024 Dual Adventure Performance Max had city/highway/combined EPA ratings of 84/72/78 mpg-e, with an EPA range estimate of 380 miles, among the highest EV ranges out there, period. That said, its 264-mile MotorTrend Road-Trip Range test number (a run from a full charge to 5 percent at a steady 70 mph) is more than adequate, but it’s quite a bit off the EPA number. The new 2025 model has improved EPA ratings of 93/80/87 mpg-e with a range of 420 miles—a 40-mile increase that translated to massive real-world gains.
With more than 90 EVs in our database, the 2025 R1T Dual Adventure Performance Max is the sixth-best EV in our Road-Trip Range test at 340 miles, losing fifth place to a second-gen Rivian R1S Dual Adventure Performance Max by 1 mile (with the same battery and motors). We used a Tesla Supercharger Magic Dock this time around and had no issues getting our test R1T quickly juiced up and ready for the road, recording a 5–80 percent charge time of 51 minutes.
Where does the increased range come from? To start with, Rivian’s Large and Max battery pack modules have been redesigned in an effort to further improve efficiency, which should also mean an increased ability to keep the packs at optimal temperatures. Consumers are getting a very tangible cost benefit from the manufacturing improvements as a result. The first Max Pack set buyers back $19,100 when it made its debut, but Rivian’s since shaved $5,100 off that number. Thanks to its massively improved range at a smaller cost, the Max Pack now seems like a worthwhile upgrade.
Additionally, Rivian says its new heat pump will condition the cabin better, and its lower power draw for heating will make more electrons available to help improve range further. The actual efficiency of heat pumps in cars has been hotly debated through the last decade by manufacturers, but it's hard to argue with the test results we’ve seen without significant battery chemistry or capacity changes. On the downside, the new heat pump required eliminating the additional storage compartment in the frunk.
We touched on the R1T Dual Adventure Performance Max’s new aero wheels, which are wrapped in new rubber, too. The 2024 model we previously tested was sporting a set of 275/50R22 Rivian-specific Pirelli Scorpion Zero All-Season tires, which have been replaced by Pirelli Scorpion MS tires in the same size. Pirelli advertises the Scorpion MS line as having lower rolling resistance, and that generally equates to more range.
R1T Adventure Dual Performance Max Performance
While those new tires might help with range, do they help performance, as well? Do they hurt it? In braking, our R1T stopped from 60 mph in 120 feet (3 feet shorter than before). That’s close enough to chalk it up to differences in road surfaces, but it does show that the R1T’s excellent braking has been maintained. The brake pedal still has a very long travel, but it's easy to modulate in daily traffic situations.
The skidpad and figure-eight tests between the 2024 and 2025 models essentially boil down to a tire test given the powertrain and rated power of both models is the same 665 hp and 829 lb-ft or torque. It took 26.2 seconds for the 2025 model to complete its best figure-eight lap at an average of 0.72 g—0.3 second slower than before, but at the same average acceleration (an average of braking, forward acceleration, and lateral acceleration). Comparing lateral acceleration on the skid, the new R1T missed the previous truck’s 0.84 g average by 0.03 g. Add it all up, and the differences are small enough to amount to variations in driver and road surface. If the tires have a meaningful impact in range, the new Scorpion MS tires are a big win.
In a straight line, the tires still had plenty of grip to lay down the power from the performance upgrade: 0–60 mph arrived in 3.4 seconds, and it crushed the quarter mile in only 12.1 seconds. Beyond a 1.0-mph difference in speed at the quarter mark, performance was identical to the 2024 truck.
In addition to an extra 132 ponies and 219 lb-ft of twist, the $5,000 Performance upgrade now adds Sport and Soft Sand drive modes on top of the standard All-Purpose, All-Terrain, and Snow modes for second-gen trucks. But if you want the really fun stuff like Rally and Launch modes, you’ll have to step up to the Tri or Quad. Calling 665 hp “not fun” seems like a stretch, though. The new R1T has the same superb handling it always did, feeling more like a sports car with truck capabilities (and the power to match) than a truck with too much power and garbage handling.
Everything Else
Other updates to the R1T still aren’t immediately obvious but go a long way toward improving the experience. The screen’s user interface has been redesigned, and the simple posterized graphics and bright colors are much easier to look at than the dark motifs and 3D graphics found in many other cars. Some of the menus are updated, with drive modes moved closer to the driver and simple items like trip info much easier to find.
The new Rivian Premium Audio developed with Dolby Atmos is far better than the previous Meridian system. It isn’t the best sound system out there, but speech is clearer in podcasts, and the separation in surround-sound playback is richer.
Driver assistance gets an upgrade, as well, thanks to the new Rivian Autonomy Platform, now with 11 cameras, five radars, and AI prediction. The Autonomy Compute Module is 10 times more powerful than the outgoing system, leading to clearer on-screen images and better performance in the dark and poor weather. Its standard functions include blind-spot monitoring and highway assist, with a premium version—dubbed Rivian Autonomy Platform+—coming later. The standard system is good in practice, but it could use some refinement in its lane centering. Rather than center, the vehicle tends to hug the left side of the lane enough that manually centering the R1T was preferred any time a turn left us next to a big rig. With more dedicated computing and better OTA updates, buyers will likely see the system improve over time.
Are the Updates Enough?
While there aren’t a lot of obvious look-at-me updates, the R1T didn’t really need them in the first place. Innovative features like the gear tunnel opened up more storage opportunities and use cases in a way that we haven’t seen since Ram introduced the RamBox storage system. Rivian seems to be in tune with the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mantra and focused on making a solid platform better. The second generation has more range at a similar price, and that alone makes getting a new one worthwhile.
The 2025 R1T Dual Adventure starts at $71,700—the same as last year—and after the Performance upgrade, Max battery, uprated interior, and paint, the as-tested price of the model we evaluated stickered at $95,850. It still isn’t cheap, but at least it’s under six figures.
Cars should look cool and go fast. At least, that was Matthew’s general view of the world growing up in Metro Detroit in the early ’90s, and there was no exception. Raised in the household of a Ford engineer and car enthusiast, NASCAR races monopolized the television every Sunday and asking, “what car is this?” at every car show his dad took him too before he could read taught him that his favorite car was specifically, the 1971 Chevelle SS. (1970 can keep its double headlights, it’s a better look for the rear!) He learned the name of every part of a car by means of a seemingly endless supply of model car kits from his dad’s collection and could never figure out why his parents would drive a Ford Taurus Wagon and F-150 to work every day when a perfectly good 1967 Chevy Impala sat in the garage. Somewhere between professional hockey player, guitar player, journalist, mechanic, and automotive designer, he settled on the University of Northwestern Ohio (UNOH) with the hopes of joining a NASCAR pit crew after high school. While there, learning about electronics and the near-forgotten art of carburetor tuning (give him a call before you ditch your “over complicated” Rochester Qudarajet) were equally appealing, and the thrill of racing stock cars and modifieds weekly on the school’s dirt oval team was second to none at the time. And then sometime late in 2009, Matthew caught wind of the Tesla Roadster on YouTube and everything changed. Before it, electric cars we not cool, and they were not fast. A budding and borderline unhealthy obsession with technology would underpin a 12-year career at Roush Industries that would take him from a powertrain technician for the Roush Mustang, to building rollercoasters, NVH engineering, and finally to a state-of-the-art simulated durability lab working with nearly every EV startup you’ve ever heard of, and some you never will. And then it was time to go, and by a stroke of luck Nikola Tesla himself couldn’t have predicted, MotorTrend’s test team was looking for the exact kind of vehicle testing background he had to offer. And with it, his love of cars, art, engineering, and writing all suddenly had a home together. At this point in life, Matthew has developed a love and appreciation for all cars and methods of propulsion. He loves reviewing minivans as much as luxury cars and everything in-between, because the cars people need to haul their kids around are just as important as the ones we hang on our bedroom walls.
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