Rivian is on a cross-countries road-trip to test out the new R1T electric pickup truck and show how great it is to go on adventures in one! The company’s team has been traveling from Ushuaia, Argentina to Los Angeles, US, with various R1T electric pickup truck prototypes.
Having been on the trip for some time now, the Rivian team shared some adventuring stories and vehicle details from their tests on the road, and off-roading. Here’s what they said in a blog post:
As beautiful as it may be, our time in South America isn’t designed to be a leisurely stroll. Spanning the course of months, our regimen consists of driving hundreds of miles every day across mixed terrain – from steep mountain inclines that last hours to washboard dirt roads that seemingly have no end. Along the way, these long-distance endurance drives are interrupted with hard bursts off-road. It’s the elite athlete’s equivalent of mixing marathon training with high-intensity interval sprints, without any rest in between.
The longest distance without charging that an R1T electric pickup prototype was able to go (with battery to spare at the end) has been 314 miles so far. The team said:
They said:
Long distances with constant changes in temperature and terrain subject our pack to a daily routine of extremes. Our high-strength underbody shield provides the protection needed for these environments. Inside, data from our battery management system is streamed back to our engineers, supporting the refinement of our control algorithms both for driving and charging.
The thing that makes the R1T electric pickup so special is that it possesses a quad-motor torque vectoring system. It’s arguably essential for a huge car with a heavy battery to take to the mountains and dunes of South America as it has. The quad-motor torque vectoring system means that Rivian dedicated an inboard-mounted motor for each wheel, and each one utilizes its own single-speed gearbox.
Here’s what they had to write about how well the system worked:
South America’s mountain ranges offer the perfect opportunity to demonstrate quad-motor torque vectoring. To gain the most traction for a given driving scenario, such as exiting a corner at full throttle, the brain of the R1T is constantly optimizing power distribution. This ability to instantly – and independently – apply torque at each of the four corners, combined with the R1T’s chassis control systems and low center of mass, results in a vehicle that’s planted to the ground, even on loose-gravel hard turns like these.
By dedicating an individual motor to each wheel, Rivian’s technical design creates unprecedented potential for torque vectoring. Here’s what Rivian CEO R.J. Scaringe told Fully Charged about the R1T truck:
It can do zero to 60 in three seconds. But what makes the vehicle so unique is the way we’re able to control torque not just front to back but left to right, instantaneously coupled with the ability to adjust to the roll stiffness and damping frequency. You could have a vehicle that instantaneously goes from something that’s incredible off-road to something incredible on the road.
The vehicles have delivered very precise control across any surface and in any environment – even very long days off-roading. They can take on steep grade acceleration on any terrain.
In comparison, gas-powered engines have a heavy downshift and delayed reaction time. Not the R1T! It delivers straight-surge uphill acceleration with instant torque to all four wheels.
Siegfried Pint, technical director of powertrain systems at Audi and former F1 engineer, explained to Electrek the benefits of having multiple motors as such:
You need three motors. You can drive faster, and you’re safer. You feel less weight. You can’t overcome physics with the traction limit of the tire. The brake takes 10, 20, 50, and 70 milliseconds to get the torque to the axle. [But with motors at each wheel] I don’t have to use brakes. I’m not giving away power. I can use the electric machine that’s much quicker than a brake. I can control slip and speed. That’s the main difference.
As far as the Rivian is concerned, Charles Sanderson, Rivian’s chief engineer, gives a similar explanation to Pint’s. He tells about the virtues of instantaneous torque feedback loops from each of the four electric motors. He said:
Because we know the torque, we can optimize it immediately, and we can determine how much torque is getting us, how much acceleration, and how much slip. And that means we can optimize the slip of the wheel very close to perfect for the tire and the grip we have available. Because our feedback is fast, it’s also imperceptible to the driver. So, you have wheel control. And what that means off-road is you can utilize the grip way better.
Rivian’s electric truck is designed to be an “adventure vehicle.” For pickup drivers and off-roaders, this pickup truck is like a dream. Anyone who wants to experience the adventures outdoors emissions-free and without noise, look no further, the R1T is it!
