Rivian says its Gen 2 Quad has more than 1,000 horsepower and 1,198 pound-feet of torque. That made scaling up a rocky mound in Lake Tahoe a breeze.

That process is helped by Rivian's new system architecture introduced in the Gen 2 R1 platform last year. This not only greatly simplified the architecture of the vehicles, cutting cost and weight, but it enabled far more finite control over those motors.

After a lengthy wait, the 2026 Rivian R1S SUV and 2026 Rivian R1T are now available in Quad-Motor configuration. Rivian owners may remember that the first-generation R1 models were available with a Quad-Motor setup that produced 835 horsepower. Since the ...