If there’s one thing I do not need in my life, it is a 1,025-horsepower purple truck with a 0-60 MPH time of 2.5 seconds. However, as I sit here without the Flying Eggplant, as we have lovingly named it, I feel…bereft. Do I actually need a 1,025-horsepower purple truck with a 0-60 MPH time in my life? What would I do with it? Answer: everything.
The 2026 Rivian R1T Quad Motor blew my mind, from start to finish. What impressed me most wasn’t the horsepower. It was the range of personalities that this truck had. If you want to throw your 2.5-second truck into launch mode and blow your passengers’ minds, you can totally do that. If you have to take a work call on a road trip and want cruise control on, that’s also possible. It’s wild when you want it to be, but pretty reserved and calm when you don’t.
2026 Rivian R1T: First Impressions And Exterior Design
My first impression of the R1T started before I even saw it. David called me and said, “It’s PURPLE!” And then my purple pal pulled into the driveway. I’ve always been a big fan of automakers who take a little risk with colorful exterior options, so Borealis and I were great friends right off the bat. With this color option, you also unlock the ability to add Bronze accents, which I think look exceptionally good with the purple. The R1T looks friendly to me, like a happy little robot of some kind. The headlights are a fun shape, and I love the light bar across the front. Love, love, love.
Without any buttons to guide me, I expected a learning curve when I got behind the wheel. That wasn’t the case here. Rivian made the whole thing very intuitive and easy to use, no buttons necessary. And with that, I set off on my first drive with my new electric truck friend. There was much to explore, but again, everything had a home on the screen that was easy to find and put to good use.
For 2026, the Rivian R1T starts at $79,990, which includes the Delivery, Processing, and Handling fee of $895. Here’s how the pricing stacks up for the whole lineup this year:
| R1T Dual Motor | $79,990 |
| R1T Tri Motor | $100,990 |
| R1T Quad Motor | $115,990 |
Normally, I have the Monroney (window sticker) to consult on pricing matters. However, this one did not come with one. Our test vehicle came priced as such, as far as I can guesstimate:
- Base MSRP: $115,990
- Borealis Exterior Paint: $3,000
- Delivery, Processing, and Handling fee: $895
- Total: $121,990 (EST)
What It’s Like To Drive
Otherworldly? Insane? Totally ridiculous and so much fun, it should be illegal? (Drive the speed limit, kids!) But really, driving a pickup truck is usually pretty standard fare. You can get a bare-bones one that gets the job done, or a fancy one with nice leather and various upgrades. These days, you can also get electric ones in either flavor. However, the R1T is unlike any of those.
There’s no way around 1,025 horsepower and 1,198 lb-ft of torque. It’s wild, but it doesn’t always have to be. I found the R1T to be pretty obedient when I was sitting in traffic or driving normally. If you wanted it to take off like a rocket ship, however, it can do that too.
I ran a few 0-60 MPH tests in Launch Mode. I will say that we didn’t have a full battery (more on that later), and we have bigger tires, which make things move a little slower. Regardless, we hit a 3.26-second 0-60 MPH time, and that’s pretty impressive.
One thing the R1T has a surplus of is drive modes. We’ve got a drive mode for everything, folks! These are divided into on and off-road modes while in the car, but they are as follows:
- All-Purpose: The best balance of comfort, performance, and efficiency on most paved or unpaved roads.
- Sport: Softer damping for higher speeds, even on rough terrain. Rally responsibly.
- Snow: Gentler acceleration and braking make driving over powder, slush, sleet, or ice smoother.
- All-Terrain: Smoothly tackle obstacles such as muddy ruts, potholes, and water up to 3+ feet deep.
- Rock Crawl: Climb a 100% grade with over 14″ of ground clearance and max torque.
- Soft Sand: Keep moving through dunes or deep sand using wheel controls to avoid getting stuck.
- Drift: Traction control is off, and torque vectoring is on its sportiest setting for a floatier feel.
- Rally: Softer damping for higher speeds even on rough terrain. Rally responsibly.
I spend most of my time in Sport mode on the mean streets of Florida, but I use Rally and All-Terrain modes off-road. I found that all of them adjusted appropriately to the settings, which made things quite enjoyable. One of the coolest parts of the different drive modes was probably seeing how everything changed on the screen. It showed the regenerative braking, stability, ride height, ride feel, and more. You could adjust until your heart (and body) was content.
If there is one pièce de résistance within the R1T, I’m giving it to Launch Mode. You hit the race flag on the screen and slide our little friend Gary up to confirm you are preparing for launch. After that, you step on the brake and gas pedals simultaneously and wait for confirmation that the truck is ready to launch. And ready to launch it was. For a large purple pickup truck with cute little headlights, this thing rips. It has no business being this fast, but I loved every minute of it. I probably wasted 30% of the battery just testing this aspect. Leave me alone; I grew up on Fast & Furious.
| Category | Spec |
|---|---|
| Engine | 4 motors — 1 for each wheel Front Motor: 2 permanent-magnet synchronous AC, 256 hp, 257 lb-ft (each) Rear Motor: 2 permanent-magnet synchronous AC, 256 hp, 342 lb-ft (each) |
| Horsepower | 1,025 HP |
| Torque | 1,198 LB-FT |
| Range | 374 Miles |
| 0-60 MPH | 2.5 Seconds |
| Curb Weight | 6,987 LBS |
| Starting Price | $115,990 |
| As-Tested Price | $121,990 (EST) |
Interior, Tech, And Daily Usability
If you know me at all, you know that I run the “I Love Buttons” fan club. I do love a button, but the crazy thing is, I didn’t miss them at all in the R1T. There’s something so logical and easy about the way Rivian’s infotainment system and touchscreen are set up. It was easy to adjust the temperature and fan speed, and I loved that you could adjust the vent direction through the touchscreen. You can control everything through the screen, which would normally annoy me, but it worked well in the R1T.
It’s also worth noting that the R1T earned an IIHS Top Safety Pick award for this year. It’s actually earned one every year since 2022, and in some years even the top TSP+ award, which, to me, is one of the more important awards modern vehicles can earn.
But at the end of the day, it’s still a truck. It has five seats and a bed for all the pickup-truck things you might want. I found the second row comfortable and spacious enough, and I appreciated the center-console controls, which let me adjust the air conditioning and music from the back seat. I changed the radio station many times while I was sitting back there.
The truck bed was pretty nifty, too, with a button on the screen that let you open and close the tonneau cover without even getting out of the cab. This kept the truck bed clean and dry, even in heavy rain.
On top of that, the truck bed has important features such as dual 120V outlets. an air compressor, and in-bed lighting. There were also tie-downs throughout, and the truck bed went down with the touch of a button. All the features you’d want in a pickup truck.
Even though the R1T is a beast when it comes to power and speed, it is also a comfortable, everyday vehicle when you want it to be. It has cupholders, plenty of storage, and good air conditioning. If your wife wants to take her friends on a shopping trip with the kids, there’s nothing holding her back. If you want to take the truck out for wild off-roading and camping under the stars, that’s even easier.
The Good, The Weird, And The Misses
| Category | Score (Out Of 10) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Driving Experience | 9/10 | Performance, ride quality, steering, handling, acceleration, confidence |
| Daily Livability | 9/10 | Comfort, visibility, cargo, passenger space, practicality |
| Interior & Tech | 9/10 | Materials, screens, controls, sound system, usability |
| Design & Presence | 9/10 | Styling, stance, wheels, road presence, uniqueness |
| Value For The Money | 8/10 | Price vs features, competitors, overall experience |
| Total Score | 44/50 | 8.8/10 |
I’m giving it an 8.8/10, which is pretty solid. I do think $122k is a little steep for a truck in these times, but it gives you quite a bit of truck to work with. Otherwise, I was happy with what the R1T offered across all categories.
What stood out after spending time with it?
What I Loved
- Launch mode was probably my favorite thing on the entire car. It’s such a fun party trick and is seriously impressive. Drift mode is also worth a mention, though I spent less time drifting and more time launching.
- It’s a comfortable truck with all of the creature comforts you might want. I think a lot of vehicles lean one way or the other these days, and that means you need two cars to do two different things. The R1T is a safe and comfortable family vehicle, it’s a solid work truck, and it’s suitable for all the play you might throw at it.
- The Borealis exterior color was a $3,000 upgrade, but I loved it. And if you noticed little Gary (pictured above), he’s wearing a matching Borealis vest. It’s all in the details!
What Felt Weird
- Switching from CCS to NACS for this year made things complicated without a home charger. It also does not come with a home charger for 2026, which means I spent a lot of time hunting down nearby charging stations. Eventually, I found a Tesla Supercharging station (not a destination charger!), and that worked. However, due to the location of the charging port (front left), I had to steal a charger from someone else’s stall and leave the charger in my lane unused. On top of that, it kept giving me errors. At this point, we had about 20% battery and really needed a charge, or we wouldn’t make it home, so I hard-reset the truck and waited for a different charger to try again. After about two hours (including our wait time) and $75 in charges, we were ready to go. This is probably less of an issue for those prepared for an EV, but it did slow me down a little.
- I liked the panoramic roof, but sometimes, I think a regular roof would be just fine. I often feel like a rotisserie chicken roasting away when I forget to close/darken the roof. That’s just the Floridian in me. For this comment and the next, it’s worth noting that I reviewed this in the dead of summer in Florida, which might not be relevant to some folks.
- It drives me crazy that the truck does not stay on when you get out. Maybe you can turn this setting off, but this thing gets HOT very fast, and I wish it would stay on while I get something out of the rear seat. Also, the air conditioning doesn’t really cool down until you start moving, which made me very hot during our week together. See previous note about summer.
Final Verdict: Would I Actually Recommend It?
At the beginning of this review, I told you I didn’t need a 1,025-horsepower purple truck, and I still don’t…But I definitely want one. That’s the funny thing about the Rivian R1T. On paper, it sounds completely ridiculous. Even behind the wheel, that much power is completely ridiculous. In reality, it’s one of the easiest vehicles to live with. It can be your family car on Monday, your work truck on Tuesday, your camping rig on Saturday, and your own personal roller coaster whenever you find an empty on-ramp. Not that I’m endorsing anything nefarious (Dominic Toretto, we are not, ok?), but it’s a combination that’s hard not to love.
Yes, it’s expensive. Yes, it’s electric. Yes, it’s a Rivian (and I consider that a good thing). There will always be naysayers for a performance-oriented electric truck, but it won me over, and I stand firm in my beliefs.
The Flying Eggplant, you’ll be missed, and I can most certainly recommend the 2026 Rivian R1T after our week together.
