Rivian gave its dual-motor models a lot more go when it introduced the $5,000 Performance Pack. The package ups power from 533 horsepower to 665 hp, with an impressive 219 pound-feet torque gain for a maximum output of 829 lb-ft. It shaves eight-tenths off the 0 to 60 mph sprint time, which falls to 3.5 seconds, and almost one second off its quarter-mile time. But so far it’s only been available as an option when you configure a new truck.
However, a post on the Rivian Forums suggests that may change soon. According to the forum poster, a Rivian customer service agent said the manufacturer is planning to launch a software update sometime later this year that will make the Performance Pack available as an upgrade for all dual-motor Rivian trucks. The poster includes the text of the email, purportedly from the adventure truck brand. If this is true, it'll be the first time Rivian will offer such an upgrade. Other electric vehicle manufacturers like Tesla have been doing it for years.
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The Performance Pack makes dual-motor Rivians almost as quick as quads
With 665 horsepower and a lot more torque, Dual Motor Performance Rivians almost match quad-motor trucks for acceleration at a lower price.
There’s no word on how much the upgrade will cost, but a safe bet is that it will cost around the same as the package costs on a new truck: $5,000. There may be some constraints, like the upgrade being available only for trucks manufactured after a certain date, which may feature different hardware that makes the upgrade possible.
Even with the Performance Pack, dual-motor Rivians can’t quite match their quad-motor brethren, which have 831 hp and 908 lb-ft. This impressive combined output allows four-motor Rivians to do the dash to 60 mph in 3 seconds flat and complete the standing quarter-mile in under 12 seconds. The Performance dual-motor R1T and R1S aren’t far behind, though, with quarter-mile times of about 12.2 seconds.
Rivian has reportedly recently been offering big discounts on R1T and R1S trucks in its inventory as it aims to make way for 2025 model-year vehicles. According to Drive Tesla Canada, you can get a dual-motor R1T for up to $6,000 off the list price if you buy from inventory, which is still packed with plenty of 2023 model-year vehicles at the time of writing.
So you can buy a Rivian dual-motor from stock, and you should be able to get the Performance Pack for it as a separate upgrade. If you manage to get the truck at a discount, you should be able to spend the difference to make the truck faster when the standalone Performance upgrade becomes available. That sounds like a pretty sweet deal.
