R1S vs R1T Decision: Help...and Let's Play

[cwinters]

I'm not going to let a coin determine my 90K purchase! I'm kind of strongly leaning toward the R1T, with all of it's cool storage options and unique features. Imagine what people can do with that gear tunnel - it may turn out useless, but it's the functional engineer in me that says, we're going to find something awesome to do with this. BUT the R1S is the ONLY 7 seater electric vehicle on the market. While that does set it apart, there are so many ICE version of it. I don't want another Telluride or MDX... I've got 3 kids - just enough to fit across the back. Screw those other softballers .

• Only legit 7 seater electric SUV
• Has that Land Rover feeling - but there is no competition
• climate controlled storage, but please be clean
• can sleep in it (as long as you can keep the A/C on and the charge up)

vs

• Full size spare
• throw the dirty crap in back!
• open (bed) and closed spaces (frunk, gear tunnel, and closed bed) to store stuff
• has that Truck feeling - the F150 may eat its lunch in terms of trucks
• Gear Tunnel options! Kitchen, how about a pull out storage system, or pull out pic-nic table, or a pull out hammock?

it is a coin toss! they are both awesome! If only someone from Rivian would contact me and show me a real picture of Launch Green so I could get an R1T in June/July!

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[ajdelange]

I'm not going to let a coin determine my 90K purchase!

The coin does not determine what you do. How you feel about the toss helps you to understand how you really feel about the options. The actual decision is based on that.

 

[skyote]

I'm not going to let a coin determine my 90K purchase! I'm kind of strongly leaning toward the R1T, with all of it's cool storage options and unique features. Imagine what people can do with that gear tunnel - it may turn out useless, but it's the functional engineer in me that says, we're going to find something awesome to do with this. BUT the R1S is the ONLY 7 seater electric vehicle on the market. While that does set it apart, there are so many ICE version of it. I don't want another Telluride or MDX... I've got 3 kids - just enough to fit across the back. Screw those other softballers .

• Only legit 7 seater electric SUV
• Has that Land Rover feeling - but there is no competition
• climate controlled storage, but please be clean
• can sleep in it (as long as you can keep the A/C on and the charge up)

vs

• Full size spare
• throw the dirty crap in back!
• open (bed) and closed spaces (frunk, gear tunnel, and closed bed) to store stuff
• has that Truck feeling - the F150 may eat its lunch in terms of trucks
• Gear Tunnel options! Kitchen, how about a pull out storage system, or pull out pic-nic table, or a pull out hammock?

it is a coin toss! they are both awesome! If only someone from Rivian would contact me and show me a real picture of Launch Green so I could get an R1T in June/July!

R1S. Gear tunnel is cool, but R1S provides more secure interior space, additional seating if/when needed, HVAC car camping, better wheelbase for off road, and I personally like the look better. Also, R1S + trailer is a great option & better than the small bed on the R1T, IMO.

Both are great vehicles, but unless you need a truck, I think R1S is the obvious choice.

 

[Mjhirsch78]

Hooray for AJ’s return!!

 

[SeaGeo]

R1S. Gear tunnel is cool, but R1S provides more secure interior space, additional seating if/when needed, HVAC car camping, better wheelbase for off road, and I personally like the look better. Also, R1S + trailer is a great option & better than the small bed on the R1T, IMO.

Both are great vehicles, but unless you need a truck, I think R1S is the obvious choice.

You are absolutely wrong. The R1T looks better than the R1S. Your opinion doesn't matter.

 

[bike123.com]

Every week (everyday?), I change my mind about buying a R1S or R1T.

I built a simple model to help make the choice easier but, because how I weigh factors can change daily, outcomes may not become clearer. But the exercise may still be worth the effort, if I'm thinking more cogently about choices. At least that's the hope.

I wanted to share my model, ask for improvements, and see if we, as a forum, can create something better. I'm sure we can. Let's play.

Scoring: 0-3 pts; split scores, 1.5 per, allowed
Decision Criteria

R1S__________________R1T​

1. carrying people & animals vs carrying stuff
2. vehicle security (fully metal enclosed vs tonneau covered bed)
3. length/maneuverability
4. utility & versatility
5. loadability (ease of loading/unloading)
6. urban vs non-urban driving
7. cost (basic vs fully loaded costs)
8. availability (R1Ts will be first off the line)
9. climate conditioned vs au naturel camping
10. looks (highly subjective but clearly important)
TOTALS

*My run yielded 15.0 points for each vehicle. My model didn't yield a winner, but it helped me think through the choices.

**Ideally, criteria are independent variables. I don't know how to make this happen and, maybe in real life, it's not important; how we feel about one criterion affects others. For example, loadability affects maneuverability. This could be collapsed into one variable or teased out, as I've done. In doing so, multicollinearity (when two variables affect each other) contaminates the sample. Expand or collapse criteria?

***Thoughts. A wider range of points, say 0 to 5, might allow for finer discrimination, but it also requires higher levels of discrimination than I'm able to make. Criteria may be added or subtracted and, in doing so, it may or may not become easier to make a decision.

We’re 67 and 71 avid cyclists and have 2 bike shops for 30 and 42 years- owned 12 vans and have always been anti pick up - claiming they’re only good for mulch and tall trees.
Ordered S - only to discover launch is 7 pax only ( we don’t need a bus) and has a very squatty cargo are - ( lower than the 5 pax.?)
‘Secure inside steel’ v tonneau cargo was mentioned
The tunnel and huge back seat compared to the squatty S area, we think there’s enough ‘inside’ for us.
we can get our tandems, recumbents, and trikes in the bed with no worry.
First pickup in our 70’s?
What’s next - hip hop, body art, raves, ?
Forgot! at our ages, the two month advance launch is a huge plus especially since the Sprinter and Chevy express ICE both died in the last 10 months and we’ve been using a Bolt as a shop truck
The tent? Somewhat appealing but we were thinking we could catch emergency Z’s under the tonneau or back seat. Gotta be way better that snoozing in our beetle back in the day
Camp kitchen? Meh, way nifty but to us it’s more of a ‘get a load of this, gang’ though we can see many making good use of it.

 

[EVSport7]

While I love pickups, the R1S is a real gem IMO. Biggest and nicest SUV that is also fast, has great range and looks amazing. Nothing I've seen thus far, prototype or otherwise even comes close to it. Unless you need the bed more than the ability to haul kids/people I would totally go that route. Plus, folding the back rows down had a LOT of space for moving things in a pinch.

 

[cwinters]

We’re 67 and 71 avid cyclists and have 2 bike shops for 30 and 42 years- owned 12 vans and have always been anti pick up - claiming they’re only good for mulch and tall trees.
Ordered S - only to discover launch is 7 pax only ( we don’t need a bus) and has a very squatty cargo are - ( lower than the 5 pax.?)
‘Secure inside steel’ v tonneau cargo was mentioned
The tunnel and huge back seat compared to the squatty S area, we think there’s enough ‘inside’ for us.
we can get our tandems, recumbents, and trikes in the bed with no worry.
First pickup in our 70’s?
What’s next - hip hop, body art, raves, ?
Forgot! at our ages, the two month advance launch is a huge plus especially since the Sprinter and Chevy express ICE both died in the last 10 months and we’ve been using a Bolt as a shop truck
The tent? Somewhat appealing but we were thinking we could catch emergency Z’s under the tonneau or back seat. Gotta be way better that snoozing in our beetle back in the day
Camp kitchen? Meh, way nifty but to us it’s more of a ‘get a load of this, gang’ though we can see many making good use of it.

Yeah, the bike thing discussed in this thread has me thinking the truck is better - hanging the wheel over the tailgate vs having to deal with a bike rack.

 

[bike123.com]

Yeah, the bike thing discussed in this thread has me thinking the truck is better - hanging the wheel over the tailgate vs having to deal with a bike rack.

And......
If you’re not a fork-over-tailgate type,
We regularly get bikes in a sub 5’ bed straight up

 

[ajdelange]

Every week (everyday?), I change my mind about buying a R1S or R1T.

I built a simple model to help make the choice easier but, because how I weigh factors can change daily, outcomes may not become clearer..

I well remember doing these exercizes for the USG early in my career. You have hit the nail on the head WRT to the problem with this approach. In my experience some interested party decided that the result was wrong which was followed by weeks of arguing about the weights. This is what the coin toss is for.

 

[ajdelange]

The coin does not determine what you do. How you feel about the toss helps you to understand how you really feel about the options. The actual decision is based on that.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/...tough-life-decisions?utm_source=pocket-newtab

 

[DucRider]

Let's hope engineers reconfigure the R1T rear seat as a platform for sleeping and for pets.

90+% of the people on this forum seem to want them to get the trucks produced and shipped ASAP.
Maybe 10% want them to keep tweaking them and make changes to the production versions.

 

[ajdelange]

I think we all pretty much accept that no sane person wants a low S/N high tech product. Quite a few of us here, however, aren't certain that we have the time to wait for further evolution.

 

[crashmtb]

After seeing the full fold-down feature for sleeping in the R1S, I seriously considered the SUV over the truck. However, the R1T wins out for me because of the max pack and the camp kitchen. Let's hope engineers reconfigure the R1T rear seat as a platform for sleeping and for pets.

The seats fold flat for cargo and happen to allow enough length for someone to lay down. It’s just a bonus, the same as on any other SUV or van of similar size.

Having the seats in the back of the R1T fold into a platform for sleeping is a non-starter for anyone more than about 5’4” tall, never mind two people.

There is already a platform for pets. The back seat.

If anything, the aftermarket(see: goose gear plate system), or a Saturday, a sheet of plywood, and a jigsaw will make a platform in place of the R1T rear seats.

 

[cwinters]

Anyone having second thoughts on the R1S given all the new info and videos on the R1T? I'm having serious Gear Tunnel Envy.

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