Back in the olden days, electric vehicles weren’t quarter-mile land missiles. We’re currently treated to 2,000-horsepower electric hypercars like the Rimac Never, but even so, you don’t need to spend over $2 million to enjoy the kind of performance that would shame a super SUV.
The clip below stars a fine-looking example of the Rivian R1S, a quad-motor utility vehicle twinned with the R1T pickup truck. It’s not Volkswagen ID.4 affordable, though, but a little costlier at $92,000 in this particular configuration. As opposed to the compact-sized crossover, the family-sized utility vehicle is rocking no fewer than four electric motors.
Good for 835 horsepower and 908 pound-feet (1,231 Nm), this fellow suffers from a problem shared by all electric vehicles. At more than 7,000 pounds (3,175 kilograms), it is heavier than the finale of Cowboy Bebop.
It sure is quick, though. While not on the same level as the Tesla Model X Plaid, it’s quicker than most people are comfortable with from behind the steering wheel. Pictured at Willow Springs on a rather dusty main straight, the zero-emission family hauler is joined by two force-fed V8 monsters.
On paper, the 4.0-liter mill of the Lamborghini Urus isn’t anything to write home about. It’s a Porsche-developed engine shared with the Audi brand as well. In this application, 641 horsepower and 627 pound-feet (850 Nm) have to make do. Not bad for a twin-turbo eight of this displacement, but remember that we’re dealing with a Volkswagen Group-developed SUV that weighs just around 4,844 pounds (2,197 kilograms).
The final challenger is a half-ton pickup, although not your usual fleet-spec Ford F-150. This one stopped by Shelby American’s facility to receive a few go-faster updates. Baptized Super Snake, the sports truck now produces 775 horsepower and heaven knows how much torque from a supercharged Coyote. Similar to the 4.0-liter unit in the Urus, it features a DOHC valvetrain rather than the cam-in-block design used by Chevrolet’s long-running small block and Chrysler’s HEMI series of burbly V8 engines.
Does it come as a surprise the Rivian betters both combustion-engined rivals in the quarter mile? Not only from a standing start, but from a rolling start as well. The only true downside to the three-row R1S is top speed because it doesn’t feature a good ol’ transmission that would give it the top end needed to keep up with the Urus and Super Snake. It doesn’t even have a two-speed tranny such as the one Porsche employs at the rear of the Taycan, with first geared for acceleration and second improving efficiency at high speeds.
Rivian quotes 125 miles per hour (a little over 200 kilometers per hour) on full song. Had it been a standing mile or a rolling mile, it would have been soundly beaten by the dinosaur juice-chugging utility vehicle and pickup.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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