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Will the Rivian's 4 independent motors translate to superior snow/ice control relative to other AWD systems?

Pherdnut

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Just watched another awesome electric motor supercar video from Drako motors ($1.2M). They just posted a video of their sports car in the winter and touted that it's 4 motors give it superior winter handling

https://electrek.co/2021/03/25/drako-gte-1-million-electric-supercar-driving-snow/

I know tank turn is awesome, and that from a climbing, off road, capability, 4 motors helps......but does it give better snow handling relative to the subarus and audi's of the world?
They're doing 100mph in the snow testing video at one point. It's going to be unreal IMO.
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n8dgr8

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They're doing 100mph in the snow testing video at one point. It's going to be unreal IMO.
I rarely worry about getting going in the winter, it is stopping that makes me nervous. Having the extra weight of the batteries in the back should help... still need to be very careful.
 

Mjhirsch78

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We lived in far north Wisconsin (no hwy 8 and Wausau aren’t far north; to confirm it, map from Beloit, WI to Wausau, 192 miles, and then Beloit, WI to Ashland, 350 miles) for almost two decades. We had 2-4 feet of snow on the ground for 4-5 months of the year. The road to our house was not plowed to the blacktop, meaning we drove on snow roads. They had a layer of settled snow on them. We drove an Impreza and a Honda Odyssey. We never owned snow tires. The Impreza did well due simply to AWD and the van did well due to weight. This truck will be awesome.
 
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JeremyMKE

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Good winter tires are really important. No amount of software can compensate for poor tires.

Our neighborhood has a hill. One winter there was Mercedes G-Wagon (3 locking diffs) with summer tires struggling even with the tow truck winch assisting. Meanwhile the neighbor's Honda CRV drove right around it.

The battery pack weight distribution will help the R1T compared to other trucks.
This is my conundrum with the Rivian. I want summer and winter tires, and the wheel sizes offered make this problematic given the weight of the vehicle and range considerations.

Right now I have 20" AT picked because my need to be safe all weather outweighs my need to go fast ;) Currently my understanding is the different OEM tires wont be offered in all the sizes. This is not a critical problem by any stretch but for half the year I would like to prioritize street performance and range. The other half is about cold weather performance and safety.

In a "normal" vehicle this is facilitated by a set of steelies with winter tires... The vehicle, power, weight and range considerations complicate this problem significantly for the R1T. After market rims and tires need to be capable of the R1T's performance envelope.

Current strategy is go with the 20" as it is the most common wheel size and drive for a while and see how it goes.
 

Trandall

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This is my conundrum with the Rivian. I want summer and winter tires, and the wheel sizes offered make this problematic given the weight of the vehicle and range considerations.

Current strategy is go with the 20" as it is the most common wheel size and drive for a while and see how it goes.
Probably the best strategy IMO. Even with AT tires the R1 will be the quickest truck/ SUV on the road (just don't drag race an R1 with 21") also you will achieve superior snow/ rain traction than any other truck/ SUV on the road (educated assumption). My "off roading" will be limited to occasional logging trails and season roads and no rock crawling. If the range impact is severe I'll swap the tires out to a quality all season even though they are ok to good across the board and great at nothing the dynamics of the R1 will be the "game changer". That's the plan now until proven otherwise.
 

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CommodoreAmiga

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Except when only one is moving backwards ?
You mean like every conventional 2WD truck (or 4WD truck in 2-HI) without a locker or LSD when you punch the throttle, in reverse?
 

CommodoreAmiga

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