Rivian R1T Yearlong Review: Winter Snowstorms Tire Out Our Electric Pickup

Jun 19, 2023

With standard all-wheel drive, 835 horsepower, 908 lb-ft of torque, and snow-rated all-terrain tires, few vehicles in our long-term fleet are as capable as our 2022 Rivian R1T. So it's no surprise it was the obvious choice when photographer Brandon Lim wanted to go snowboarding at Big Bear in the mountains east of Los Angeles.

As it happened, a major snowstorm rolled in, turning a simple weekend getaway into an ordeal. What follows is his account of the R1T's winter performance.—Ed.

Getting to Big Bear meant a freeway drive to the bottom of the mountain, a quick top-up of the Rivian's battery, a long climb on the narrow highway up the mountain, and then breaking off to take a shortcut on a Forest Service trail to get to my rental cabin.

Unfortunately, I entered the trail right as one of the heavy atmospheric rivers battering California rolled into the mountain. In an instant, dirt turned into mud, snow froze into ice, and my shortcut turned into a longcut. The Rivian's tires started to falter as a blizzard kicked in, slipping and sliding back into the deep rutted grooves on the trail. To help ensure forward progress for the R1T, I followed the tracks created by previous vehicles.

The fine motor control offered by Rivian's unique quad-motor system really came into its own here; being able to feather the accelerator and add tiny amounts of power without spinning the tires was paramount to making it up the mountain. The Toyota 4Runners and Land Cruisers I passed on the trail were stuck spinning their tires, but I rolled forward gently and precisely, without losing traction in the packed snow.

When the trail opened up, I had a chance to enjoy the R1T's excess of torque. Deep mud washes were a breeze, requiring no more than half throttle to send 12-foot rooster tails into the air from all four corners. With no internal combustion engine sucking in air, I never had a worry about power loss at altitude, or flooding and damaging the powertrain.

Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened to an overly ambitious Land Cruiser ahead of me. It seized its engine while trying to cross a mud wash and was rendered inoperable. With the storm in full effect, and after a failed recovery effort by a GMC Sierra dually, the Land Cruiser was left on the side of the trail to be rescued another day.

Once clear of the Land Cruiser and on snow-packed roads in town, the Rivian felt comparatively invincible. The R1T was confidence inspiring and surefooted on the way to our cabin; I wouldn't have wanted to travel around the mountain in those harsh conditions in anything else without chains or dedicated snow tires.

By morning, half an inch of ice coated the Rivian's gear tunnel, tonneau cover, and tailgate buttons, and the tailgate itself was frozen shut. The R1T's on-screen controls couldn't fully open the gear tunnel doors, so I opened one of the rear passenger doors and slammed it closed to create pressure in the cabin to open the tunnel. Once I got it open, I fit two snowboards, two helmets, and two pairs of snow boots in the tunnel; four adults in winter gear piled inside the cabin.

The drive to the ski resort from the cabin was just 3 miles, so I was surprised to see we used 15 percent of the R1T's state of charge by the time we pulled into the lot. Even though we spent most of the time waiting in traffic, keeping the cabin warm in the freezing temps put more strain on the battery. With all that glass in the cabin, the windows fogged up quickly, but the front and rear defrosters worked beautifully. It worked so well, condensed water was gathered on the glass roof rather than snow or ice.

Back from a fun day of snowboarding, I was greeted with a flat tire on the truck's right-rear corner. Great. Swapping on the Rivian's full-size spare was a straightforward task, though. I put the vehicle in its max ride height (accessed via Off-Road mode) and then into Tire-Change mode, which prevents the self-leveling system from making adjustments as the truck is jacked off the ground. The scissor jack, tire iron, jack-base extension, and jacking-point puck are all located in the in-bed rear trunk.

If only, as I'd soon find out, I had a second spare.

There were no issues or warning signs driving back down the mountain, and the truck made it halfway home before the right-front tire violently exploded. Followed by a deafening bang, the explosion threw the remaining tread 10 feet into the air toward the traffic behind me. Only the sidewall remained on the wheel, exposing the inner barrel. Luckily the truck kept straight when the tire blew, and I limped it to a nearby parking lot.

The low tire pressure warning had been on since I swapped the right-rear tire, and at the time I assumed the spare tire's TPMS sensor needed to be synced. I also didn't know how to toggle individual tire pressures. [Hold the left-most steering wheel button down until the left side of the instrument cluster changes from navigation to tire pressures to driving efficiency.—Ed.] My theory is that I had a minor leak entering the highway, and since the TPMS light was already on from the right-rear tire change, I wasn't aware of a possible new alert that anything was wrong with the right-front tire. As heat built up with speed, the resulting force caused the tire to blow out in an enormous explosion when the sidewalls finally let go. Thankfully, the damage was limited to the tire and a small chunk knocked out of the wheelwell liner. Well, and to my plans. Thankfully roadside assistance was but a phone call away—three hours later, armed with a new wheel and tire, I was back on the road and headed home.

This wasn't the way I wanted to end the trip, but it was confidence-inspiring to see how well our R1T handled everything the mountain threw at it.