We Stage a Literal Tug-of-War To Settle the Score: 2025 R1T Tri Max vs. 2024 Tesla Cybertruck Beast
There were no exhaust clouds in this electric truck showdown, but there was still smoke.
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Testing 18 trucks to determine the 2025 MotorTrend Truck of The Year (coming soon to this website and the print edition of MT) is a lot of work. Testing trucks requires extra effort that cars and SUVs don’t, like driving with payload, hooking up to trailers, and exploring on- and off-road terrain. We spent a jam-packed week trucking through every trucking thing we could think of for a truck to do. But between the polarizing design of the 2024 Tesla Cybertruck and the sheer amount of granola you can fit in the gear tunnel of the 2025 Rivian R1T Tri Max, our judges remained at least a little conflicted over which one was best.
There was only one logical way to settle it: tug-of-war.
Have Our Judges Lost Their Minds?
We haven’t announced our 2025 Truck of the Year winner yet, but rest assured, we did not determine the overall winner this way. Each truck that came to the party had a fair shot, as intended, being judged against our six official criteria. So, we conceived this Rivian vs. Tesla tug-of-war in the name of a bit of extracurricular fun and a different kind of story angle. Let the spectacle commence.
Yeti vs. Beast: Three Motors Each
In what amounts to arm wrestling for trucks, the assumption is generally that the biggest, heaviest, and strongest truck will win. The Rivian R1T Quad was, without a doubt, the strongest truck of our 2025 TOTY field, with 1,025 hp and 1,198 lb-ft of torque. It’s the guy or girl in the gym who is clearly the strongest, but far too intimidating to approach for advice.
More important, it has four motors, and the Tesla Cybertruck Beast has three. We didn’t need to start this competition with the suggestion the Rivian got an unfair advantage—as it turns out, the R1T Tri ends up being a perfect match for the Beast. Here’s how they stack up:
Our measured braking distances, quarter-mile times, and handling statistics aren’t relevant for this competition, but the two trucks are so closely matched in those metrics that if someone really needed validation that their truck is the best, the tug-of-war might be the only thing left to do. Regardless of the reason, it’s a fair fight.
Surely, an Advantage Lies Somewhere
Though we didn’t give the 2025 Rivian R1T Ascend Tri Max the upper hand by pitting the 2024 Tesla Cybertruck Beast against a four-motor truck, the three-motor version might still have a couple of advantages. Only 5 hp separates the two competitors, but the R1T Tri has 239 lb-ft more torque from all three motors combined, and 139 lb-ft more when comparing the rear axles. That means the R1T can lay down more torque than the Beast at the same rate.
What about traction? Both trucks have two motors powering the rear axle, so they each benefit from a “virtual locker,” meaning they can synchronize their motors to perform like they are mechanically linked. The Cybertruck has a slight advantage at the front axle with an electronic-locking differential; the R1T runs an open differential. With the bulk of power at the rear of each truck, front axles might not matter this time. But if it comes down to clawing for every inch of grip, the Beast’s front axle could be the clincher.
The Game Plan, Round One
The Rivian R1T Tri and Tesla Cybertruck Beast are a close match on paper, but they are different enough that we came up with a different approach for each of them.
For the R1T Tri, we had eight different drive modes to choose from: All-Purpose, All-Terrain, Soft Sand, Snow, Drift, Rally, Sport, and Rock Crawl. Test team director and TOTY 2025 coordinator Eric Tingwall would pilot the Tri, selecting its Rock Crawl mode to start. Grip is as important as any other factor in a tug-of-war battle, so our logic was that Rock Crawl mode would enable smooth acceleration with a coordinated effort between both axles. Maximum torque will be available at the speeds these electric motors will reach in this test, so there is no need to smash the throttle to get the power required for such an endeavor. The default setting for Rivian’s Rock Crawl mode raises the truck to its “High” setting (one down from “Highest”) with a firm suspension feel, standard battery regen, and reduced stability control.
For the Tesla Cybertruck, we decided its Overland mode with customizable terrain settings—All Purpose, Sand, Gravel/Deep Snow, and Rock—would be best, using the same logic as our Rivian choice. Tasked with wheeling the Cybertruck, I went with Sand because it allowed the highest amount of tire slip on “soft, deformable surfaces,” as Tesla describes, which best fits the closest definition of the soft, sandy dirt mixture native to Southeastern Michigan and Holly Oaks ORV Park. The rear axle virtually locks automatically in the three-motor Beast, but we would lock the front axle manually.
A feature we loved about the Cybertruck was the customization of front/rear torque bias in Baja mode, with a slider in the off-road app. This lets the Cybertruck act like a FWD or RWD vehicle, and anything in between. If we completely wrecked any hope of traction in the rear, maybe killing the rear axle and operating like a front-wheel-drive truck, despite less available power with one motor, might win the battle. Because of this, we switched from Overland to Baja with the trucks hitched up and ready to go.
The Result
Almost immediately, it was clear these two electric warriors were locked in a stalemate. The trucks began slowly sinking into the makeshift battleground as the wheels spun, eventually glazing the dirt surface and emitting plumes of tire smoke.
Anyone who has ever been stuck in mud or snow knows that making the hole deeper never helps. To regain some traction, I let the Rivian pull the Cybertruck back a few inches in a hunt for new ground and an advantage over the R1T. It was around this time that a critical error became evident: switching from Overland to Baja unlocked the front axle. As it turns out, not all options carry over when switching drive modes.
After scarfing down that big nothingburger, we shut it down with both trucks stuck in ruts neither was going to pull itself and another truck out of. As we relocated to fresh ground, it took some effort to move the trucks even without them fighting each other. A properly locked front axle to start may have manifested a different result, but the damage had been done: each truck remained structurally sound, but the tires were now far from fresh.
Call it a draw, but my game-day decision to “let” the Rivian get us out of the ruts was viewed by the crew as a weak attempt at saving face. Technically, the R1T Tri did pull the Cybertruck Beast closer to the center line. Maybe the second round would be more definitive.
Round Two
The first attempt to settle the tug-of-war score didn’t go exactly as planned. We noticed the 2025 Rivian R1T Tri’s front wheels weren’t spinning as expected in the Rock Crawl setting, and the Cybertruck had an open differential up front. Tingwall switched things up with Rivian’s All-Terrain mode, and I left the Tesla as it was after making sure the axle was locked.
But wouldn’t you know it? The same thing happened again, as both trucks remained stationary, feverishly tossing dirt as they dug deeper into the ground. This, again, was going to go nowhere fast, even with both trucks set the way we wanted them. I hunted for traction by trying to work the four-wheel steering. Unfortunately, the wheel speed translated to a command to limit the rear steer like the system would do on an expressway.
So, despite knowing this decision would be hotly contested and met with skeptical belief again—if believed at all—I let the R1T Tri pull the Cybertruck out of its self-made ruts. Watching the footage later, this was a near-miss, as the Beast’s bumper (note how it still hadn’t magically dropped to the ground yet) was dangerously close to the line that crossing would mean losing. Even if the Beast got the upper hand on the R1T, it was going to need some momentum, so I wanted as much distance as possible. Otherwise, it would just drag both trucks back into the ruts they came out of. The rear camera helped here, but I still nearly threw the fight by accident.
Believe me or don’t, but watch the video carefully: As soon as the Cybertruck’s wheels start spinning, the R1T immediately quits forward momentum. I could feel the Cybertruck pulling the R1T, but I could also feel the deep holes keeping us both in place. Despite how close the Beast already was to straight-up losing, the Rivian had dug holes so deep it could no longer pull both trucks as I let it try to pull us again. We’ll never know for sure if Tingwall gambled that the Tri’s tires would be better diggers, but a buried truck could lose. With no real stakes, I just wanted someone to win, and fresh ground was the only hope.
In our quest for honest, unbiased journalism—especially important in these high-stakes tug-of-war matches—we awarded Rivian the win. But the overall performance proved both trucks were equally matched in the setting we put them in. Regardless of how it got there, my plan didn’t pan out, and the Rivian pulled the Tesla closer to the line. I was out of rope, with my dreams of a victory lap around Mars knocked out of orbit.
Specs, Analysis, Blah, Blah—Where’s the Carnage?
Most people don’t submit their trucks to the brutality of a tug-of-war because such showdowns are notoriously destructive. In this battle, neither truck suffered anything more than some worn tires. In the Cybertruck’s case, a buried rock we uncovered wore the center tread past “some” and all the way down to the cords of the right-rear tire, but it still drove away and held air.
Did we learn anything? Absolutely. And we proved this tug-of-war belongs with thumb-wrestling and staring contests in the pantheon of ineffective score-settling devices.
Both rounds of our tug-of-war went on for what felt like an eternity, but neither of us was going to give up until a winner was declared. Had we used two combustion engine trucks—especially anything with a turbo under the hood—something would surely have overheated. Combustion engines need sufficient airflow through their cooling modules, and the electric fans aren’t enough when the engine, transmission, and turbos or other heat-generating components are all screaming. They have always been designed to get sufficient cooling while moving.
We had the “throttles” hammered on the 2024 Tesla Cybertruck Beast and the 2025 Rivian R1T Ascend Tri Max. But batteries and motors under normal operation don’t create the same kind of heat continuous explosions will, so their cooling systems can get away with working while stationary.
Say what you want about electric pickup trucks, but these two appear built to go the distance.
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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