Winter Driving Update: Nokian Outpost nAT Review: Big Efficiency Hit

[Budman]

Dec 5, 2025 Update:
I've had a chance to do some cold, snow, and Ice driving on the Outpost nAT tires. Time for an update;

EFFICENCY:
In my original post I reported on a big loss in efficiency with the Outpost nAT tires. But that efficiency hit is much less at cold temperatures! I'm surprised by how much temperature impacts the efficiency differences between the OEM 22" All Seasons (blue squares in the chart below) and the Nokian 20" Outpost AT tires (purple X's).

SNOW:
They do quite well in the snow. I feel pretty confident I could get through pretty much any kind of snowfall.

ICE:
Our first snow of the year fell on warm ground and created a nice layer of ice to test the tires on. I compared the Rivian R1T with the Outpost nAT tires to our Volvo XC40 EV with Nokian hakkapeliitta r5 SUV winter tires and our 2017 Honda CRV with all season tires. The hakkapeliitta's were clearly the
best. If they had not been the best I would have been very disappointed in them. If I score the hakkapeliita's a 10 and the all seasons on the Honda a 1, then the Rivian with the Outpost nAT were maybe a 4 on ice. Better than all seasons but well short of a winter tire.

Overall: My opinion of these tires has gone up given the surprisingly little efficiency loss in colder weather and the good snow performance.


Original Post:
I've been a Rivian R1T owner for 3 years. 2 years and 55,000 miles on a Gen 1 Quad with the 21" Pirelli Scorpion OEM all season tires and 1 year with 28,000 miles with a Gen 2 Dual Max Pack with the 22" Pirelli Scorpion OEM all season tires. I've been happy with the OEM tires and have gotten 35,000 miles out of the first set on the Gen 1. The second set on the Gen 1 and first set on the Gen 2 were/are on track to also get 35,000 miles.

In the spring of 2026 we are planning a camping trip to Utah/Arizona that will involve some extended off-road travels. We plan to go to Bear's Ears, Monument Valley, Vermillion Cliff and The White Pocket among other places and I wanted to get a set of All Terrain tires to complement my 22" all seasons. After a lot of internet research I settled on the 20" Nokian Outpost nAT as a mild off-road tire with good winter performance I could utilize during the winter season in Minnesota. I got a set of 5 rims and tires from Discount Tire.

I've never driven with All Terrain tires so this is my first experience with any of them and have nothing but all season road tires to compare to so bare that in mind with the following review:

My impressions after 2000 miles with my seven main criteria from most to least important:

1: Safety Criteria. Grade: A
This is why I got them. Safety and confidence in off-road conditions and better (but not great) winter performance. As for dry/wet grip I can't comment too much. I don't drive hard so rarely approach any kind of grip limit.

2: Efficiency Criteria. Grade: F
Wow!. I was fully expecting a hit here but I'm getting 16.5% to 18% worse efficiency relative to the Pirelli all seasons. I've posted versions of the chart below many times on this forum. I take the same 165 mile trip from my home to my Northwoods cabin frequently and record the efficiency on most of the trips. My Gen 1 and Gen 2 with the Pirelli all seasons have the same efficiency at all temperatures. Much to my disappointment I've not seen a benefit at colder temperatures from the heat pump in the Gen 2. I've done the trip 4 times now with the Outpost nAT tires. I'm seeing 16.5% to 18% worse efficiency. That is massive!

3: Noise Criteria. Grade C:
No noise meter to give dB reading so just a my suggestive impressions. Noisier than I was expecting. I can live with it but I value a quiet ride pretty highly and these just bug me. If I'm not going to be spending much time in harsh off-road conditions I just don't want these on my R1T.

4: Driving Dynamics Criteria: Grade: C-
They are balanced right I think. The steering wheel is steady and not vibrating but the feedback from the road is pretty strong. I have to give a stronger input to make a turn and the tires really want to dive into any ruts or depressions in the road. The R1T drives much more like a TRUCK with the Outpost nATs on then a sports car with the OEM tires. I like the sports car handling better.....

5: Weight Criteria: Grade D:
Man they are heavy. I got 5 to have a full size spare. It's a beast to try and get the spare out of the storage area in the bed of the R1T. Just today I swapped back to the 22" Pirrelli's. I did the work myself and ya, they are hard to change.

6: Appearance Criteria: Grade: A
They do look good, I'll give em that.

7: Cost Criteria: Ungraded.
I needed/wanted All Terrain tires so I got what I wanted. Cost didn't play into it much....


Concluding: As noted above, after about a month of driving and 2000 miles I've already put the 22" OEM all seasons back on. I just don't like driving on the Outpost nAT tires day to day. The efficiency loss, noise and driving comfort loss is just more than I care to tolerate. I'll put them back on when the snow arrives and for our off-road camping trips but otherwise I'll use road tires. The Outpost nAT tires have a role to fill and they will do that well. So in that regard I'm OK with them but for me it's not a good overall choice.

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[mikehmb]

I've always appreciated seeing your data for various conditions, so thank you for that.

This is disappointing for sure. 14% loss is about target for the OE Pirelli ATs, so 20% on these is about right, and consistent with other proper ATs out there. It's what keeps me from running ATs full time, too.

 

[VSG]

The OEM 20" Pirellis have an efficiency hit of ~10% (284 mile range Gen 1 Large Pack R1T, vs 314 mile range with 21" OEM).

All tires are tradeoffs, and one of the tradeoffs for an AT tire is that the aggressive tread leads to worse efficiency.

I think it would be hard to find an AT tire that had significantly *better* efficiency than the OEM. The OEM was designed for Rivian, and Rivian has a huge financial stake in getting the highest EPA rating possible. If there were an AT tire that had 20% more efficient than the OEM, then you can bet Rivian would drop the Pirellis in an instant so they could claim an extra 60+ miles of EPA range.

An AT tire that is heavier and more rugged than the OEM Pirelli (most of them are) will necessarily have slightly worse efficiency. But will be more puncture resistant, especially the sidewall, will have greater tread depth (lasts longer) and will have better traction off road and maybe in the snow too.

Still, I would have expected those Nokians to have an efficiency hit of more like ~15% compared to your 21". Is your tire pressure too low in those Nokians perhaps?

 

[Budman]

The OEM 20" Pirellis have an efficiency hit of ~10% (284 mile range Gen 1 Large Pack R1T, vs 314 mile range with 21" OEM).

All tires are tradeoffs, and one of the tradeoffs for an AT tire is that the aggressive tread leads to worse efficiency.

I think it would be hard to find an AT tire that had significantly *better* efficiency than the OEM. The OEM was designed for Rivian, and Rivian has a huge financial stake in getting the highest EPA rating possible. If there were an AT tire that had 20% more efficient than the OEM, then you can bet Rivian would drop the Pirellis in an instant so they could claim an extra 60+ miles of EPA range.

An AT tire that is heavier and more rugged than the OEM Pirelli (most of them are) will necessarily have slightly worse efficiency. But will be more puncture resistant, especially the sidewall, will have greater tread depth (lasts longer) and will have better traction off road and maybe in the snow too.

Still, I would have expected those Nokians to have an efficiency hit of more like ~15% compared to your 21". Is your tire pressure too low in those Nokians perhaps?

Forgot to mention: I put the Nokian's at 55 to 60 psi based on info from Jose at RivianTrackr.

 

[Nixapatfan]

Thank you for putting this together, I was debating to get AT tires on my 22's or get another set of rims, your review confirms I should get a set of 20" rims for AT's and get sport tires on the 22's.

 

[Budman]

Thank you for putting this together, I was debating to get AT tires on my 22's or get another set of rims, your review confirms I should get a set of 20" rims for AT's and get sport tires on the 22's.

It’s the way to go if the added cost for extra rims is ok for you.

 

[Mountain Vibes PNW]

Rick, thank you for taking the time to post your experience and especially the efficiency data of the 20" Outpost nAT. I am currently running the 22" version and concur with your grades, except with the 22" version I am seeing much better efficiency, very close to the OEM Pirelli 22" All Seasons. I love these tires off-road, but the noise is too big a price to pay, am debating bringing these back to discount tire, which I have never done before. My main issue is the noise, and the wet handling is not good... and in the PNW we are hitting the wet season now.

 

[Riviot]

I'm getting 16.5% to 18% worse efficiency relative to the Pirelli all seasons

Checks out. That's the same diff I get between AT3W and AS+3.

 

[COdogman]

Excellent analysis, as usual @Budman. I went to the nAT from the stock ATs, which always got approximately the same efficiency you found for the nAT for my driving. So unless these become louder than the Pirellis ATs in the next 30 days or I experience some scary performance in bad weather I will probably stick it out with the Nokians.

After 1 week with the nAT I can say I don’t recall the Pirellis being this quiet even when new, but that could just be my mind playing tricks on me. And it could obviously change quickly down the road…

 

[André]

wheel size (from 22” to 20”) and profile may have a greater impact on efficiency than tires…

 

[Bruce_]

How do you capture this data (and then graph it)?

 

[Budman]

How do you capture this data (and then graph it)?

I reset the Trip A meter before departing. Record the data by hand into an Excel file on my laptop and save it as a .csv format I then use a Python script (Python is a programming language popular in the engineering community). The script calculates the 2nd order least square fit and the 95% confidence bands.

If anybody is interested I can post the script.

 

[zefram47]

FWIW, there's a snow comparison of this tire against a few others.

 

[Budman]

FWIW, there's a snow comparison of this tire against a few others.

I had seen that video. It’s the main reason I selected this tire.

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