Tesla Cybertruck VS Rivian R1T Suspension & Brake Comparison Up Close!

[@tmytco7664]

The A arm materials on the Tesla are by design, not cost cutting. The steel upper was chosen for impact. The engineers went over this during the delivery day event.

[@alittleofthisnthat5665]

Good video but spec sheets for CD shows/says the RivianR1T is more aero efficient

[@MountainPassPerformance]

It does show that! Perhaps we need to do more testing to find out where the Cybertruck gets its efficiency from.

[@alittleofthisnthat5665]

@@MountainPassPerformance the other thing I didn't hear you mention between the two vehicles is that the Rivian has a full-size spare tire compartment whereas the Cybertruck unfortunately with it being a larger vehicle doesn't have one and you have to use your bedspace. I believe this is huge in favor of the Rivian

[@MikeHewitt]

True but the bed in the rivian is much smaller to begin with. probably comparable to the CT with the spare in it.

[@alittleofthisnthat5665]

@@MikeHewitt I hear you but not even close. Even if that was the case why take up valuable bed space with the spare tire. It's a huge miss/oversight on a full-size size truck

[@theichione1827]

@@MountainPassPerformance Even in conserve mode the quad motor Rivian R1T has to drive two motors at highway speeds where as the Cybertruck may only be driving one motor under similar circumstances. So probably would need to compare it to the dual motor R1T to eliminate some variables.

[@BrandonMeyer1641]

I just saw a cuber truck on the road for the first time today and it looked really cool.

[@BrandonMeyer1641]

I’m happy both these trucks are on the ev market they are both excellent in their own ways. I like them both.

[@MountainPassPerformance]

Stop it with your reasonable and level headed comments. Don't you know that's not the internet we're trying to build here in 2024?

[@TinkerersAdventure]

Very informative video. Learned a lot! Always interested in these electric trucks. The Rivian interconnected hydraulic shocks kind of remind me of the Toyota AHC system

[@stevencase243]

Very Informative but Need more footage of Jesse working😍

[@MountainPassPerformance]

Anything else you want footage of Jesse doing?

[@michaelpatterson8758]

Nice work guys. Thanks for continuing to push the EV optimization and modification space.

[@ibsn87]

That hydraulic suspension is great in the rivian. Until it starts to have issues 😅 anyone with a an older Lexus/ top model Toyota will know.

[@Shabobidhuffy]

Cyber truck has steel subframe for the suspension pivots so you can weld reinforcements to them if you beat hard. Would be easier to add aftermarket control arms that are the same length or even +3” and get 12-16” wheel travel on the cyber. Replace the air ride with 3.0” fox/king/bilstein coil overs per side and it should be fun.

[@ZipZoomZip]

The Cybertruck is already more fun than you can imagine as it's delivered. It really wants for nothing.

[@CarlinHefner]

Rivian claims the R1T has the lower cd of the 2. So I'm wondering what led you to say that the CT is more aerodynamic. Is it frontal area? Of course it'd be amazing to see actual wind tunnel results, but currently we just have the manufacturer claimed values of .34 for the CT and .30 for the R1T.

[@MountainPassPerformance]

Interesting for sure, the Cybertruck gets far better efficiency on the highway, despite the Rivian decoupling one axle. Both tires should be similar as they are equally sized similar compounds, and the same wheels (K02 and K03 tires). We don't have a tonneau cover on our Rivian, so perhaps this is part of it.

[@CarlinHefner]

​@@MountainPassPerformance Ahh I'm guessing it's the tonneau cover difference, and maybe powertrain and hvac efficiency as well. I agree overall efficiency is most important, but still would be interested to see how the real cd compares to manufacturer claims, if you know anybody with a wind tunnel 😉

[@CarlinHefner]

Oh I just saw you did a road comparison, that's really tough to compare because of variable wind and temps, but I'm sure you tried to account for those. Was most likely the missing tonneau cover, because at the time of publishing their drag coefficient, they only offered the powered tonneau cover. There are some nice diy tonneau options, maybe can test again to see how much of a difference that makes.

[@ShaunRF]

Total aero efficiency is a factor of cd and frontal area. Could the Cybertruck have a lower frontal area? Or perhaps there are significant differences between the Rivian used in the wind tunnel vs many of the trim levels sold.

[@boostav]

@@ShaunRF Rivian might be quoting a static Cd instead of dynamic, i.e. without the wheels turning.

[@ranig2848]

According to Rivian and Tesla numbers, Rivian has lower CD but it also has a significantly smaller front footprint (and overall size) since it's a midsize truck vs CT being a full size truck. Also, it appears that Tesla is measuring CD a bit different - with wheels in motion, whereas many/some others measure CD without wheels or not in motion, not taking into consideration CD impact of moving wheels - which can be signfiicant at these low CD numbers.The fact that Rivian with a standard pack (121kwh) has significantly less range (270 mile) vs CT with 320 (or 340 with "street" tires)

[@TroySavary]

That's because Rivian is using real world miles and Tesla is using Elon miles.

[@MountainPassPerformance]

Yes exactly, by the numbers the Rivian should get much better highway efficiency considering how much aerodynamic drag plays into the power losses at high speed. With the same wheels and tires on both vehicles, it does not! In theory, if the Rivian is more aerodynamic, there should be a speed where it becomes more efficient than the Cybertruck. Sounds like we need to go faster!

[@4literv6]

@@TroySavary not according to car and driver Edmunds etc who all loathe tesla. The rivian in either dual or quad motor large pack trim with at tires is LESS range real world than the smaller pack ct is. Edmunds even managed 330+real world ct miles on a charge in mixed driving.👍🏻😀

[@justino4489]

@@MountainPassPerformanceRivian weighs more

[@TroySavary]

@@4literv6 Out of Spec got 250 miles highway driving, going down to empty. Highway driving is the only time range actually matters. Who cares, what a vehicle gets puttering around town? Also, at city speeds, and in stop-atart driving, aero doesn't really matter, but weight does.

[@brianstanfill2114]

Really fantastic review. I liked how you went about reviewing both. You do have a biased toward the Rivian and that was easy to pick up on in your narrative but at the same time it felt extremely balanced and fair. I learned a lot thank you guys.

[@MountainPassPerformance]

Thanks! Yes we'll be the first to say the Rivian stole our hearts (along with a ton of Tesla UI design cues - lol)

[@oregonlegal]

This is a really great overview, MPP. It seems the Cybertruck's suspension uses inexpensive and less durable design and construction. I will however say having driven both the Tesla Cybertruck and the Rivian RT1, the Cybertruck's ride is much, much smoother.

[@jeffhuen]

What color wheels were on the CT? Satin black or anthracite? Looking to preorder the wheels for Rivian!

[@MountainPassPerformance]

Awesome to hear! Those are Satin Black. We just got a set of Satin Anthracite in for the Rivian (but in 21" size!) and we'll be posting pictures of those shortly. The two colors we'll be offering for the Rivian will be Bronze and Anthracite (no black)

[@alanmay7929]

the rivian hydraulic system is just like toyota KDSS system

[@ElectrifiedOutdoors]

Nicely done!

[@starlite2092]

6:09 and 6:26 on both sides in the wheel wells on the Tesla at full turn you can see the tire rubbed. Not sure how you could fit a bigger tire since anything bigger will also come much wider.

[@MountainPassPerformance]

Yup, and this is an OE sized tire and OE offset (Just a KO2 rather than the Tesla spec). You'd have to keep the truck jacked up at all times, which will kill aerodynamics.

[@commuterbranchline8132]

A fantastic comparison!

[@johndavis7257]

Your aerodynamic assessment is off by the data. Rivian may look traditional but its drag coefficient is a .30 vs .335. It’s quite aero optimized, most aerodynamic of the pickups at least per the data reported on them.

[@MountainPassPerformance]

Interesting. Perhaps we're missing something, but the Cybertruck was consistently much more efficient at highway speeds compared to the Rivian, despite the Rivian decoupling the rear axle. We drove both vehicles on the same trip together, so they were in the same air at the same time! The Rivian, at 0.30 cD, has about 20.5kW of aerodynamic drag power at 120km/h. If the Cybertruck has 15% more drag than the Rivian, that represents a difference of about 3kW of drag power. The Cybertruck's total drag power would be 23.5 kW On our long drive the Rivian averaged about ~36 kW of power @ 120km/h. With 20.5kW of drag power the remainder is 15.5kW. As the Cybertruck uses about 15% less energy at highway speeds compared to the Rivian (averaging around ~33kW of power @ 120km/h - the remaining power is 9.5kW), that would mean the motor/battery/rolling losses are only ~60% of the Rivian! That's almost twice as efficient. Possible but unlikely. You can see how we've concluded the Cybertruck is more aerodynamic, as it's unreasonable to think the Rivian has basically half the efficiency outside of aero! In both cases, the trucks were using the same wheels and tires for the most part, although the Rivian had the BFG K03 versus the BFG K02 on the Cybertruck. Both trucks were at 60psi. It's always tricky with aero and the main difference would be that the CFD of the Rivian is done with a Tonneau cover and we don't have one. But as Rivian's are being delivered without them, it's a fair comparison at this point in time!

[@johndavis7257]

@@MountainPassPerformance it’s possible Rivian’s aero numbers are with the smaller road wheels and aero covers which would decrease drag some. Don’t know which config that .30 comes from but the per kWh rated rate per the EPA cycle is better on the Rivian side hard to direct compare as Tesla chose not to EPA rate cybertruck. My R1T usually exceeds its rated efficiency just a bit with the stock 20 inch AT tires on all purpose presuming I don’t get too carried away with the speed.

[@moridin1000]

@@MountainPassPerformance BFG KO3s maybe have lower rolling resistance? And is the frontal area similar, or does the Cybertruck have a lower overall CdA despite the higher Cd?

[@MountainPassPerformance]

@@moridin1000 Really hard to compare the KO3s to the KO2s unfortunately. The Cybertruck actually has a larger frontal area which is why I commented 15% more drag rather than 10%!

[@ShaunRF]

Posted this under another comment, but total aero efficiency is a factor of cd and frontal area. Could the Cybertruck have a lower frontal area? Or perhaps there are significant differences between the Rivian used in the wind tunnel vs many of the trim levels sold.

[@shawnconti8915]

I wish the R1T had rear wheel steering!!

[@MountainPassPerformance]

That would be cool!

[@MindzEnt]

Rear wheel steering came with the GMC Sierra and Chevy Silverado back in the 2000s and no one really cared. It's a cool concept but mostly useless in real world situations. Most new trucks already have a really tight steering angle and streets in the US are massive so 4 wheel steering is really just a party trick.

[@ZipZoomZip]

@@MindzEnt Um, no. The rear wheel steering transforms the Cybertruck in a fundamental way into a much better vehicle. Combined with the fast-reacting steer by wire, it's mind-blowing what it can do that a regular truck can't. This isn't hyperbole, it's just plain obvious if you use one. I have over 3,000 miles on my Cybertruck and am blown away by how fun/easy it is drive in tight environments and well it rides/handles on highways and twisty roads. It literally does all driving environments well. No other vehicle on the road today can say that. It's a completely different animal.

[@DericO-rz3be]

rear brakes appear significantly different between cyber and rivian... not worth mentioning?

[@missingpiece2071]

I heard anyone over 6'1" will hit their head on the ceiling in the back seat on the CT

[@ZipZoomZip]

That's a false narrative propagated by anti-Tesla folks. I'm 6 foot-four inches and I fit fine in the back seat, sitting straight up, with an inch or two to spare. The cabin in the Cybertruck is large and airy, especially compared to the R1T which is not optimized for someone my height.

[@valienterf]

Wrong, i pick the Cybertruck , Rivian is ok but is for Metroxesual guys.

[@MindzEnt]

Yeah but Cybertruck is for incels so I guess pick your poison.

[@Lou-f]

How’s the Z doing?

[@paulbram2]

CT is NOT more aerodynamic than the Rivian.

[@mathewwilson2286]

That's too bad...😂😂😂

[@DavidLeee]

nice video but you got one thing massively wrong. don't be fooled by the shape, the CT is not more aerodynamic. the R1T has a lower coefficient of drag. gotta do your hw before you spend half a video claiming something.

[@ShaunRF]

He said that was based on real world efficiency figures they got, not from manufacturer provided cd numbers.

[@mhsohel47]

How dead wrong you are about range and effeciency! Just watch kyle connor and inside ev 70 mph range test. CT 304 miles vs R1s 290. Do better research. Big battery does not mean big range. Efficiency is king.

[@ZipZoomZip]

I stopped trusting Kyles tests long ago, he has a persistent anti-Tesla bias. I don't know if he does it consciously or unconsciously, but he doesn't want any Tesla to perform well in any range or efficiency test. You can tell how biased he is by watching the language he uses. Sometimes he catches himself and adds a moderating comment to appear less biased, but he can't help himself.

[@MindzEnt]

Crazy how cheaply made the cyberdump i mean cybertruck is compared to the Rivian. This explains why so many Cybertrucks are breaking down over small puddles.

[@ZipZoomZip]

Another Tesla hater identified. Rivians are significantly less reliable, with more serious issues, compared to the Cybertruck, based on sales volumes and reported problems.