Rivian R1S SUV Has Cool Storage Feature Families Will Love

Despite several hangups, the Rivian R1S SUV is more than underway. Rivian has suffered shares selloffs, production woes, and everything in between. Still, the brand is committed to meeting its production guidelines both for the R1T truck, its Amazon delivery vans, and this SUV.

The R1T is, without a doubt, an impressively thoughtful vehicle. The first thing that comes to mind is Rivian’s camp kitchen, which stows in the equally-clever gear tunnel situated beneath the truck’s rear seats. There’s also a Bluetooth speaker, charged by the truck’s battery, that can be deployed at any time. Those two are just small examples, but you get the idea.

It appears the R1S will carry that thoughtfulness forward, at least at the rear. CEO RJ Scaringe shared a tweet of Rivian quality team member Stacy, showing off some of the R1S’ rear cargo features.

The liftgate is a clamshell layout, not unlike those from Range Rover. It’s all powered, of course, and the top half opens first, with the lower half released separately for easier loading of heavy objects. However, it appears the lower gate isn’t powered.

Within the trim on the top half of the gate are lights for visibility, which appear to be bright-ish. It’s hard to tell given the lighting in the video. Scaringe says you can use them to read a book on the tailgate, so we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt for now.

Inside, there looks to be some level of under-floor storage, a common feature in new cars. Less common are the removable cargo tie-downs, which slide anywhere you might need them between the fold-down third row and the rearmost point of the boot.

The third row does fold totally flat, as does the second, but it’s worth pointing out that it isn’t powered, something some might be disappointed in given the R1S’ luxury price point ($72,500 MSRP). Thankfully, Scaringe’s relatively short assistant didn’t seem to have trouble getting them down, even with the lower gate open. The second row is powered to some extent and can be dropped via buttons at the back.

Scaringe is “six-foot somethin'” and has no problem lying almost totally flat with the second row down. Knowing Rivian, we’re betting on more features that haven’t been shown yet. Given the absence of Rivian’s innovative gear tunnel, we’re hoping to see some more clever storage solutions in the brand’s first SUV.