PIONEER MOVEMENT
As I pull our Glacier White 2022 Rivian R1T electric pickup truck off its charger somewhere in western North Carolina overlooking the Great Smoky Mountains, I’m chewing on the idea that there aren’t many firsts left in this world. Sam Garcia, one of Rivian’s young electric charging engineers, catches me as I walk out of our hotel, loading up for the next day of our epic overland adventure.
“Check it out,” he says, handing me a Rivian wheel center cap and an official-looking business card. It reads: “This item flew to space above the Karman Line on Blue Origin’s fully reusable New Shepard Launch Vehicle.”
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has ordered a fleet of Rivian vans for his company (not to mention an R1T and an R1S SUV for himself), and just four days earlier he was among the first private citizens to reach outer space on a commercial rocket. A first, but literally not one of this world.
What we’re doing, though, is an Earthbound first. The automobile’s (re)electrification levels the playing field, allowing upstarts like Tesla and Rivian to compete with century-old giants like Ford and Mercedes-Benz while simultaneously providing car enthusiasts a new opportunity to push the limits of possibility. For example, take our historic electric off-road crossing of the U.S., made possible for the first time thanks to the new 2022 Rivian R1T electric pickup and the Trans-America Trail. The TAT is a 7,000-plus-mile route stretching from the dunes of Nags Head, North Carolina, on the Atlantic coast, to the cliffs of Port Orford, Oregon, overlooking the Pacific.
This route winds around the Appalachians, across the mighty Mississippi, through the Great Plains, and over the Rockies, before threading through the West’s high-desert slick rock and redwoods to the coast. Some paved roads dot the trail, but they’re few and far between. Because of the endeavor’s sheer scale and distance, MotorTrend together with Rivian dedicated 43 days to the adventure, split into five legs. We divided into five crews of staffers as we navigated our convoy of two near-production-spec 2022 Rivian R1Ts and our support vehicle, a Ram 1500 TRX, across the Trans-America Trail.
NO AUTOMAKER HAS A RIGHT TO BUILD A TRUCK THIS GOOD RIGHT OFF THE BAT.
The new Rivian R1T electric pickup truck is uniquely suited for this overland expedition. The first modern EV pickup to hit the market, the R1T—and Rivian as a whole—is conceived around the idea of electrifying the outdoors. Leaving the Fords of the world to electrify the work truck, Rivian says the R1T is engineered to ensure we can continue to explore the great outdoors long after the world pivots from the internal combustion engine to the electric motor.
Sized somewhere between midsize and full-size pickups, the new R1T indeed seems tailor-made for overland travel. Its stylish bodywork boasts a covered 4.5-foot bed, a trunk, a gear tunnel between the rear seats and bed, and a large frunk. Under the skin, the Rivian R1T has four motors (two at each axle for torque-vectoring all-wheel drive) with a combined output of 835 horsepower and 908 lb-ft of torque, backed by a 314-mile, 133-kWh battery pack and a novel height-adjustable air/hydraulic suspension. Rounding out the package, our test Rivian has all-terrain tires and the available Yakima rooftop tent; our “El Cap Granite” support Rivian features a camp kitchen that slides out of the gear tunnel.
We know going into the journey that it’s sure to be many things. Grueling, difficult, and dangerous. Hilarious, stupid, and just plain old fun. No matter what happens, as Rivian engineer Garcia reminds me in North Carolina early in the trip, it’s going to be a historic first. Ride along with us here as we partake in the first-ever production EV crossing of the Trans-America Trail. Christian Seabaugh
LEG 1 JULY 17–25, 2021
Nags Head, North Carolina, to Dalton, Georgia 1,704 miles
“It’s annoyingly good.”
There’s nothing like a little existential dread to kick off a 43-day,
