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Rivian Will Unlock More Range For The R1S And R1T Via A Paid Software Upgrade

Owners of the second-gen models will also be able to get the Performance pack via an OTA software update.

2025 Rivian R1T Review

Photo by: Patrick George

Iulian Dnistran

By: Iulian Dnistran

Mar 3, 2025 at 4:27am ET

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Rivian will enable some of its EVs to get performance and range boosts via software updates.
The company's software chief confirmed the Performance upgrade will no longer be tied to the purchase of a new vehicle.
Later, some R1S and R1T EVs will get more driving range via a paid software unlock.

Rivian will enable some R1S and R1T owners to unlock more driving range and performance thanks to paywalls and over-the-air upgrades.

As spotted by RivianTrackr and confirmed by Rivian’s software boss Wassym Bensaid, version 2025.06 will allow owners of the refreshed dual-motor R1S and R1T EVs to get the Performance upgrade after a few taps on the car’s infotainment screen.

Currently, the Performance pack can only be bought outright when configuring an individual order or when buying an R1T or R1S from inventory with the option already activated. It costs $5,000 as a one-time purchase and boosts the dual-motor EV’s power and torque from 533 horsepower and 610 pound-feet to 665 hp and 829 lb-ft, respectively. Additionally, the sprint to 60 miles per hour goes down from 4.5 seconds to 3.4 seconds and two more driving modes are available—Sport and Soft Sand, in addition to the standard All Purpose, All-Terrain and Snow.

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It’s unclear how the OTA Performance upgrade will be priced, whether as a one-time purchase or as a subscription.

The power-boosting option is only available on the Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive R1S and R1T models fitted with the Large Battery pack. This particular battery setup will also become eligible for a range-boosting update in the future, according to Bensaid, who replied to a question on his personal X account.

In short, owners of EVs with the so-called “Large+” battery will be able to pay to unlock the entirety of the pack which is currently paywalled to use fewer modules and provide less range than it is capable of. Bensaid did not provide details when the feature would become available.

If you're confused by this, you're not the only one. Officially, there is no Large+ battery pack on sale, only Standard, Large and Max. The entry-level option for refreshed 2025 models is a 92.5-kilowatt-hour lithium iron phosphate (LFP) pack, while the other two use 2170 lithium nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) cells. On Rivian’s website, the Large pack is listed as having a usable capacity of 108.5 kWh, while the Max has 140 kWh.

But here’s the kicker: when production of the 2025 R1S and R1T began last year, Rivian only manufactured Standard and Max packs. The Large packs were actually Max packs with a portion of the battery unused. The cars were priced accordingly, so the customers were not impacted, and Rivian was able to ramp up production quickly.

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As of this writing, there are still new R1S and R1T units in inventory, and you can tell which battery is fitted by looking at the range figure. The software-locked R1S Dual Large has 330 miles of range, while the non-software-locked variant has 329 miles.

Owners of these EVs will potentially be able to pay to unlock the full capacity of their batteries, essentially transforming them into Max packs. A 2025 Rivian R1S with the Dual Motor and Max Pack combo has an EPA range estimate of 410 miles, and the battery upgrade costs $6,000 over the Large pack when configuring an individual order. We’ll have to wait and see how Rivian handles the software unlocking of eligible vehicles.

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