At a time when aerodynamics feel more important than ever — and new EVs seem to be out-competing each other to have the most slippery silhouette — Rivian’s aesthetic remains charmingly chunky. The upright fascia, with its broad light bar punctuated by fang-like headlamps, is distinctive and memorable. Up to around the B-pillar it’s much as we saw from the R1T, but the R1S truncates the rear overhang and then encloses it.
It’s practical and helps the third row be adult-scale, but the angles of the black-finish roof at the very rear are perhaps the least successful part of the overall design. It just looks a little top-heavy, from the side view. Saying that, the R1S has a better departure angle than its pickup cousin, at 34.3 degrees versus 30 degrees, and its breakover angle is several degrees improved, too.
That’s not the only practicality on offer, here. The R1S will tow up to 7,700 pounds (albeit down from the 11,000 pounds of the R1T), and with all three rows up there’s a 17.6 cu-ft trunk. Drop the 50/50 split third row, and that expands to 46.7 cu-ft; fold the 40/20/40 middle row, and it swells to a hefty 88.2 cu-ft. There’s 5 cu-ft in a bin under the trunk floor (which can hold a compact spare tire), and 11.1 cu-ft in the front trunk (or frunk) which powers open and closed from the chunky carabiner-styled key fob. Sadly, the body-spanning Gear Tunnel on the R1T is absent.
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