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The 2026 Rivian R1T Quad Motor Max Pack hits 60 mph in only 2.6 seconds and covers the quarter-mile in 10.6 seconds at 128 mph, making it the quickest pickup we've ever tested.
While the Tesla Cybertruck Beast matches the Rivian's time to 60 mph, it falls nearly a second behind by 100 mph.
The quickest gas-burning pickup we've tested, a 2024 Ford F-150 Raptor R, needs a comparatively pokey 3.6 seconds to reach 60 mph.
Welcome to Car and Driver's Testing Hub, where we zoom in on the test numbers. We've been pushing vehicles to their limits since 1956 to provide objective data to bolster our subjective impressions (you can see how we test here).
Electric vehicles have redefined what we consider quick, so much so that some could argue it’s all gotten a bit silly. Nowhere is this recalibration more profound than in the truck world. Only a short time ago, we were shocked and awed by the sub-four-second 60-mph times of the 700-plus-hp Ford F-150 Raptor R and Ram 1500 TRX, which, to both trucks' credit, are impressive feats given their off-road capability. Then came along the GMC Hummer EV pickup, its three motors and 1000 horsepower punting its absurd 9640-pound girth to 60 mph in a mere 3.3 seconds. Yet even that pace seems quaint compared with the speed of the top-spec rigs from Tesla and Rivian, with the latter brand's updated all-wheel-drive quad-motor R1T recently snagging the title of the quickest truck we've ever tested.
Weighing in at 6987 pounds and sporting a combined 1025 horsepower and 1198 pound-feet of torque from four individual motors (all fed by a 140-kWh battery), the 2026 Rivian R1T Quad Motor Max Pack blitzed the mile-a-minute mark in a launch-control-enabled 2.6 seconds. Keen-eyed readers will note that time merely ties the run set by the 6901-pound, 834-hp Tesla Cybertruck Beast, and nitpickers may want to tip the scale in the Tesla's favor on account of it rolling on chunky (i.e., traction-limited) 20-inch Goodyear Wrangler Territory RT all-terrain tires. That’s fair. Despite our R1T test truck's available and far stickier 22-inch Michelin Pilot Sport S5 summer rubber (sized HL275/50R-22 in front, 305/45R-22 in back), its rollers still needed to warm up for maximum traction, and even then, they were on the verge of breaking loose off the line.
However, the parity between these two trucks quickly evaporates as speeds increase, with the Rivian nosing ahead by 70 mph. At 100 mph, the R1T is in front by nearly a second (6.0 seconds to the lighter Cybertruck's 6.9), and it ultimately posts an insane 10.6-second quarter-mile pass at 128 mph—a massive 1.1-second and 17-mph gain over the previous-generation quad-motor model. Tesla's Beast, on the other hand, only manages an 11.0-second run at a paltry 119 mph, which, interestingly, the R1T can almost match in its one-rung-down, 850-hp tri-motor configuration (11.1 seconds at 121 mph). All three of these trucks are limited to around 130 mph, meaning the Tesla will never pull ahead of the R1T Quad even on a longer straight. But the Cybertruck does earn kudos in one real-world metric: without the benefit of launch control, its 2.8-second time from 5 to 60 mph is a half-second better than the top Rivian’s.
Experiencing the quickness of the R1T Quad is as uneventful as it is in most EVs. First, engage both the sportiest drive mode and launch control in the center touchscreen. Hold down both pedals for a couple of seconds while the truck hunkers down on its air springs and primes its systems for takeoff. Then release the brake when it gives you the go-ahead. Amidst the whirring of its electric motors, the blood rushing to the back of your skull, and the rapidly blurring scenery, the only indicator that you're in a crew-cab pickup with an 11,000-pound towing capacity is its modestly elevated seating position.
While not as revolutionary—within the greater truck segment—as the Ferrari-beating GMC Syclone from the 1990s, it does help to put the $117,790 R1T Quad Motor's unreal straight-line potential into perspective: not only does it gap the quickest gas-burning pickup we've tested, a 2024 F-150 Raptor R, by a full second to 60 mph, but it'd win a quarter-mile drag race against some of today's seriously capable sports cars, including the Chevy Corvette E-Ray, Mercedes-AMG GT63, and Porsche 911 GT3 RS. Silly indeed.
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