Sandy Munro Begins Rivian R1T Teardown, Starts By Removing The Frunk

Under the frunk he finds lots of cool engineering solutions, but as always, he points to improvements that could still be made.

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Andrei Nedelea

By: Andrei Nedelea

May 26, 2022 at 11:31am ET

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The Rivian R1T electric pickup seems quite well engineered, but during his teardown of the electric pickup, Sandy Munro will surely find a few points that he will suggest improvements for. He begins with the front of the vehicle, taking off the plastic cover from above the headlights, revealing that it is held in place by magnets - this is quite a novel solution, according to Sandy.

Before taking the frunk out of the vehicle, they have a look at its functionality and how the false floor, which is lined in carpeting, comes up revealing the bare plastic bottom below. Again the solution preferred for keeping the false floor up is a pair of magnets.

Sandy appreciates the fact that the Rivian R1T’s frunk is a pretty much one piece plastic injection moulded component, pointing to the fact that such a piece is not easy to make. With it out of the vehicle, the neatness of the cable and hose arrangement underneath becomes apparent.

It’s all very simple, logical and all the main parts are clearly visible - you see the cooling installation and the lines that run from it, the steering rack, the ABS module and others and they all look like they could easily be serviced or replaced should any of them fail. This also highlights how much simpler EVs are compared to ICE vehicles, although you wouldn’t necessarily say it based on the sheer number of crisscrossing lines and cables shown here.

In the video, Sandy also checks out the charging port and its spectacular power-operated door that literally swings open, praising it for working surprisingly well given the bold solution chosen. The vehicle’s crash structure also comes into view with the frunk out and it’s really interesting to see how Rivian seems to have engineered the R1T to be able to pass the small overlap crash test by having a narrower chassis structure in the front.