2025 Rivian R1T Tri Max Review: An Owner’s Take on the Refreshed Truck

Rivian recently launched the second generation of its flagship product, the R1 platform that consists of both the incredible R1T pickup truck (a former MT Truck of the Year winner) and the bestselling premium vehicle in California, the three-row R1S SUV. The bigger-than-a-refresh update (internally known as Peregrin) is so impressive that the mighty Volkswagen Automotive Group effectively licensed gen 2’s core technology for $5 billion in cash money.

The first R1T rolled off the production line in September of 2021, meaning the second-generation trucks and SUVs happened less than three years in, leaving current owners wondering if they should hang on to what they got or trade it in for the gen 2. Potential buyers are also wondering if they should take advantage of Rivian’s current crop of wicked-good lease deals on the older models or wait a few months for latest and greatest. I happen to be a first-gen Rivian R1T Quad owner (26,496 miles and counting) and just spent close to 1,000 miles in a gen 2 truck R1T Ascend Tri Max. Allow me to provide my perspective.

We Love Our Truck Just Fine

Before we get started, I just purchased a 2024 Toyota GR Corolla. I mention this not to brag (well, maybe a little) but to relay an anecdote illustrating how my family feels about our Rivian. See, the lease was up on our just dandy 2022 Alfa Romeo Giulia Ti Sport; and I should mention that after three years and 27,000 miles, nothing went wrong with it save for a dead battery that was part of a bad batch of batteries Stellantis sourced from Turkey during the pandemic.

The GR Corolla has mesmerized me for long enough, and I said to myself, “Why not get one more internal combustion car, with a manual transmission, before they’re gone?” When I informed my wife I’d be replacing the Alfa with a Toyota, she said, “Can’t we just get two Rivians?” I was stunned for a second but did think about it for more than a moment because I could turn one into a full-time off-roader and the other could be full of her junk. Hitting you over the head with it: We love our Rivian R1T.

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Big Things You Notice Right Away

Rivian made a big deal about the improved light bars on the Peregrine vehicles, but unless the truck is plugged in and you switched on the option to have the interactive lighting/light bar active while charging, you won’t notice. You will, however, notice that the door handles are ever-so-slightly reshaped and they feel different in use, as Rivian switched from cable-operated door releases to electric ones. Even though they function the same, the new door handles require less effort to open than before, and they don’t feel as robust.

To open the front doors from inside the truck there’s now a not particularly premium-feeling plastic thumb button, as well as a plastic handle that’s a rather large downgrade from the solid metal handle in the gen 1 vehicle in terms of both looks and feel. The replacement is reminiscent of something you would have found in a Pontiac during its last decade. I’d wager most new owners will get used to the thumb button, so the cheapened handle will only upset repeat customers. On the plus side, the seats have a new square and rectangle stitching pattern that would look at home in a Range Rover or Aston Martin. Totally premium. Same with the new floormats.

My first experience with a Rivian was in Georgia in August, and the weather was hot and disgusting. Unfortunately, gen 1 trucks and SUVs have a normal glass roof, and it sucks if you live in a place that has a lot of sun. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever met a Rivian owner who hasn’t tinted the hell out of their vehicle’s roof. On that drive, the rear seat was stuffed with Rivian employees, and I kept saying what a rotten idea a glass roof was. They kept telling me it’s totally fine, really. They tested it, it works great, they said, ignoring how much I was sweating.

Then, when we got to Mississippi, it was 106 degrees with what felt like 200 percent humidity. The trucks were stopped for a break, and the glass roof turned the interior into a microwave. I turned around to see Team Rivian nearly dying, as the rear-seat air conditioning is way weaker than it is up front. Fast-forward to today: When I looked up in the new gen 2 R1T, I saw that the new electrochromic roof was “closed,” meaning opaque. Yeah, the new fancy roof keeps things much cooler.

Also, the new Dolby Atmos stereo is exceptional. My truck is the Launch Edition R1T, which came with an also-excellent Meridian sound system. I’d say the new Dolby system is even better. I’ll also say whatever the other, cheaper sound system Rivian was putting in the gen 1 trucks is hot audio garbage.

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Little Things You Notice Later

There is one possible deal-breaking change between gen 1 and gen 2, at least for me: Rivian shrunk the frunk! A new heat pump has been added, and for NVH reasons, Rivian located it in the frunk. You lose about a shoebox worth of space, which may not sound like much unless you constantly use your frunk.

Rivian frunks have a false bottom with storage underneath a cover, and the previous folding cover has been replaced by a solid one that has carpet on one side and is nicely rubberized on the other. Below the cover on gen 1 is a large space where I keep my off-road recovery gear, all of which wouldn’t fit in the gen 2 R1T or R1S. Could the off-road gear live elsewhere, like in the gear tunnel, or even in my garage? It could, but it would move around in the R1T’s gear tunnel, or I’d have to remember to grab it every time I went four-wheeling.

Not only does everything fit perfectly currently, but I love the fact I can just jump in my truck and hit the trails without having to think. It’s a small thing to most people but a big deal to me. Also, you can still fill the frunk with ice and then stuff it with beer, then empty it later using the drain plug in the floor.

Big News

Range is up! The gen 1 R1T Quad on the 20-inch Pirelli Scorpion off-road tires gets about 285 miles of range. The gen 2 R1T Tri on the same tires is EPA-rated at 320 miles of range (with the Max battery). However, I experienced much better than that. No, I wasn’t doing an official MotorTrend Road-Trip Range test on a 600-mile drive up the California coast, but I noticed that when the battery was at 54 percent SOC (state of charge) the truck claimed it had 182 miles of range. Meaning 350 miles or so from full to empty.

Admittedly, I never charged it past 85 percent because at that amount I had more than 300 miles of range available, and contrary to whatever meme you may have read this morning, charging infrastructure is improving. I charged the truck twice at Tesla chargers with zero issues and twice at Electrify America chargers with only one issue (50 percent success rate is good for EA). Want more range? If you outfit your Tri-Motor R1T with the 22-inch Pirelli street tires, the EPA-certified range increases to 380 miles overall and 405 in Conserve mode. Not bad for an 850-hp pickup truck. Put more succinctly, the new R1T Tri Max makes more power and gets about 65 extra miles of range.

The Storm Blue example I drove is an R1T Ascend Tri Max, meaning it comes standard with Rivian’s Max battery, and as of now that’s the only battery you can get with the Tri-Motor powertrain. So, comparing the range of my Large battery isn’t quite apples to apples. That said, there’s only about a $4,000 price difference between the two, with the new one costing more.

I’m Highly Annoyed

At the end of my 600-mile road trip, I’d come to the conclusion that, yeah, sure, the new Rivian R1T Ascend Tri Max is a little bit better than my Quad-Motor gen 1, but there was no killer app compelling me to even consider making a swap.

I knew the new software and electrical hardware mean that gen 2 will improve massively as time marches on, but for now the difference isn’t that large. Yes, the new motors seem quieter and less thrashy than the ones I own, but by something like 5 or 10 percent. Also, although I knew the tri-motor makes 15 more horsepower (850 vs. 835) and nearly 200 extra lb-ft of torque (908 vs. 1,103) than my Quad, it felt a little slower just bopping around town. Also, with only a single motor up front, the regenerative braking feels weaker. Again, by just a hair. So I was totally keeping my Compass Yellow truck.

But then I did something stupid: I put the new R1T in Sport mode and drove up Angeles Crest Highway, one of the world’s great canyon roads. Dammit.

The new one drives so much better. Annoyingly better, especially as I’d just run my truck up the same road a week earlier. Dammit times two.

What’s so good? First off, more torque. I’m guessing Rivian limits the torque output in All Purpose mode, but in Sport, hot damn! There’s more grunt on tap, and it’s obvious in every situation. For those of you thinking the tri-motor is too powerful, please remember it’s a nearly 7,000-pound truck. The more power, the better. Also, I like going quick. It’s fun. And this ain’t nothing, as the new Quad makes 1,025 hp.

The handling is likewise greatly improved—actually, make that massively improved. The steering is simply better. Sharper, more talkative, more alert, more alive. Does pulling about 250 pounds off the front end (the approximate weight of one of Rivian’s drive units) make the difference when compared to a Quad? Or is this just down to superlative suspension engineering and refined software? Let’s go with a mix of the two.

As good as the front end feels, the rear of the new R1T is where it’s at. In Sport with the traction control turned all the way off, I maintained a very pleasant and manageable slight rear-out drift the entire way up. I found it so wonderfully RWD in feel, even though I was in an AWD pickup truck on off-road tires. Magical stuff here. Imagine how great it would be on the street tires, the same tires Gardner Nichols just used to set the Pikes Peak stock truck record in driving the new Quad.

Please don’t read me wrong: The first-generation R1T is still an amazing driver’s car/truck that mashes together a Porsche 911 and a Ford Raptor R, to paraphrase Sean McLain from The Wall Street Journal. Annoyingly, the gen 2 R1T is simply better to drive, and I’m still making payments on mine.

A bit of light at the end of the tunnel: If you listen to the episode of the InEVitable where we interview Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe, he strongly hints the upcoming R3X—which we already know will be a tri-motor version of the R3—is going to have the same power as this here R1T. Where do I sign?