Report: Rivian R1T is More Efficient Than the Tesla Cybertruck
Electric vehicles might not use any fossil fuels to move around, but they’re still subject to efficiency testing. The Tesla Cybertruck delivers impressive efficiency that bests all of its rivals except for one. Rivian’s R1T has stronger efficiency than the Tesla, even when riding on the larger optional wheels and carrying the heavier battery pack.
Reddit user u/Wugz did the math, finding that the Rivian’s efficiency beats that of the Cybertruck, Chevy Silverado EV, Ford F-150 Lightning, and GMC Hummer EV. As Electrek pointed out, the Cybertruck’s efficiency figures may change over time because of its newness, but there are a few reasons to believe the early data.
The Rivian R1T, with a 0.30 drag coefficient, is significantly more aerodynamic than the Cybertruck at 0.335, which in turn is slipperier than the F-150 Lightning and GMC Hummer. Chevy’s Silverado EV gets closest in the wind tunnel, reaching a 0.331 drag coefficient.
Tesla’s range estimates are known for being optimistic, as the automaker uses a different set of “correction factors” that give its vehicles higher range estimates. Using numbers closer to the industry average, the Cybertruck’s range would fall somewhere in the high 200-mile area instead of the 340 and 320 miles offered by the currently available models.
[Image: Rivian]
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Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.
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Considering the CT has more room for passengers in the cab and a bigger box(hint, hint, it's a bigger truck) I'd hope the Rivian is more efficient. Still I'd bet it's the tires between the two more than anything that give the Rivian the slight advantage.
Like the Rivian, does the CT also come standard with doors that fill with water and a cave below the rear of the bed that accumulates whatever debris your shoveling out of the bed? Some bad rookie engineering blunders with that truck.
Sadly you can't compare Cd estimates from different manufacturers, wind tunnels, and CFD. Or more accurately you can compare them but it doesn't mean much. Each manufacturer has its own test protocol, and even when you test with the same protocol different tunnels give different results for the same vehicle.
Sure, every electrical engineer and EV enthusiast has memorized that statement of theoretical efficiency and repeats it in every discussion. This bores me, and it's irrelevant. I'm not praising or damning EVs, but asking that we measure the relative efficiencies of various EVs to help compare them to each other.
True- but that's such an obscure and ignored figure that even this article doesn't mention it.