The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has just published the results of putting the 2022 - 2023 Rivian R1T electric pickup through its usual barrage of tests. The R1T aced its performance and was given the Top Safety Pick+ rating, marking it as being one of the safest vehicles on the road and only the second pickup in this size bracket to get the award.
The IIHS notes that
The crew cab pickup meets all the requirements for the higher-tier award. All trims come with good-rated LED projector headlights and a standard front crash prevention system that earns superior ratings in both the vehicle-to-vehicle and daytime vehicle-to-pedestrian tests.
It’s really impressive to watch just how well the Rivian R1T took the small- and moderate-overlap front crash tests. The former is the more difficult of the two (and the more recently introduced) and it used to pose a lot of problems for automakers.
However, the R1T has clearly been designed with this test in mind and it slides to the side of the barrier as the impact occurs, essentially keeping the vehicle from stopping on the spot, which would amplify the forces being sent through the body. In the moderate-overlap test, the vehicle impresses with the solidity of its A-pillar, which doesn’t seem to move at all in the impact (proof of this is the windscreen not cracking).
The R1T did well for passenger protection, getting the maximum result in all categories and subcategories except for rear passenger head protection, where it got an “acceptable” rating. It also got the “superior” rating for its crash prevention technology and its headlights were also deemed “good.”
Until today, the IIHS had only named one other pickup of this size a Top Safety Pick+, the 2022 Toyota Tundra, which it tested earlier this year. It had more “acceptable” ratings than the R1T, though, including for its standard headlights, which are not as good as the Rivian’s.
