A Rivian R1T Towed A Big Trailer 1,500 Miles. Despite The Range Loss, It Cost Less Than Gas

Pulling a 4,500-pound load over a massive cross-country trip through the Rockies made a dent in the usable range, but it was still worth it.

Rivian R1T towing a 4,500-pound trailer

Photo by: EVtuners (YouTube)

Iulian Dnistran

By: Iulian Dnistran

Jun 15, at 9:14am ET

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Towing with an EV can be a little nerve-racking, but one Rivian R1T owner wants to prove the opposite is true.
Tyler from a small racing team known as Team Arcblast just finished a 1,500-mile towing trip and said that it was the best tow vehicle he’s ever driven.
Range took a big hit, and the charging stops added 10 hours to the trip, but it cost less compared to a gas truck, and it was much, much more comfortable.

Everybody knows electric cars take a pretty big range hit when they’re towing anything substantial on a long trip. This leads to more charging stops, which makes the journey last longer, and it’s probably one of the reasons that killed the Ford F-150 Lightning and the stillborn Ram 1500 REV.

However, EVs still have plenty of advantages over gas trucks, and with today’s fuel prices, some might choose to endure the extra charging stops for a lower fuel bill and extra comfort.

That’s what Tyler Joy from Team Arcblast, a grassroots racing team, did recently. According to a recently published EV Tuners video, he’s one of the people who built an electrified Datsun minitruck with swappable battery packs that currently holds the EV distance record in the 24 Hours of Lemons endurance race.

As it happens, that electric minitruck had to go from Denver, Colorado, to Thunderhill Raceway Park in Willows, California, for a racing event, and the workhorse chosen for the 1,500-mile trip was a first-generation Rivian R1T Launch Edition. That’s a quad-motor electric pickup with a massive, 130-kilowatt-hour battery pack that can theoretically drive 314 miles on a full battery.

While towing the 4,500-pound trailer, however, the realistic range between charging stops was somewhere between 160 and 170 miles, resulting in no fewer than 14 pit stops along the way. All of these charging sessions added roughly 10 hours to the trip duration, but according to Tyler, that was more than worth it, considering he was already looking at a three-day road trip.

That may not be to everybody’s taste, but when it comes to fuel costs, Tyler claims he spent just a third of the money to recharge compared to what he would have spent to refill a gas truck on the same trip. With today’s gas prices and with around 6,000 miles of towing this year planned, it can add up pretty quickly.

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He’s no towing novice, either, having driven several big trucks before. However, the R1T is undoubtedly the best towing vehicle out there, thanks to the massive power reserve, which comes in handy on steep climbs, and regenerative braking, which keeps the physical brakes cool during long descents.

Previously, towing through the Rocky Mountains was a pretty bad experience because he needed to mash the throttle on the ascent and then carefully manage the brakes on the descent, but not in the Rivian.

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All this being said, it wasn’t all great. At one point, he ended up with just 5% left in the battery before a charging stop, and discovered that driving at 60 miles per hour instead of 80 mph can actually shorten the trip because the truck consumes a lot less energy.

For Tyler, having to stop to charge more often when towing with an electric truck is not such a big problem, considering he’s getting to his destination more relaxed. The EV is a lot more comfortable and quieter than a combustion truck, so the tradeoff is minimal, he said.

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