R1T Truck

Make
Rivian
Segment
Sports Car

What do you do if you want to go Overlanding, but the vehicle at your disposal is an EV? Surely charging opportunities will be few and far between, and the range between recharges will limit your progress? Not if Optima Batteries has any say in this matter after it revealed its highly modified Rivian builds at SEMA 2022.

Firstly, Optima equipped the Rivians on show (an R1S and an R1T) with custom 20-inch Alston BR005 "Forged Black Rhino" alloy wheels, rooftop tents from iKamper and Camp King, respectively, BFGoodrich all-terrain tires, 84,400-lumen Baja Designs light packages, and two sets of Optima "Orangetop Hypercore Lithium 30" batteries in each Rivian show car. Finally, it hooked up its own power supply trailers to the two vehicles' tow hitches.

Mounted on Turtleback trailers and equipped with 110 kW lithium-ion batteries from Volta Technologies, an Optima Power Station can recharge a Rivian R1T (or R1S) from 0-80% at Level 2 speeds. Recharging the Power Stations is accomplished by built-in deployable Merlin solar awnings, so as long as the trailers have access to sunshine, their batteries are easy to keep topped up from normal wall sockets as well. The Power Stations' versatility is further enhanced by integrated 110- and 220-volt AC, and 12-volt DC outlets, to power consumer electronics and other electrical devices.

The Rivians themselves should already be quite camping-friendly in standard form, thanks to their recently-announced Camp Mode. Camp Mode is still in beta testing at the time of writing, but its main highlight is a self-leveling system to ensure that the available rooftop tent stays level regardless of the camping surface. Other niceties with Camp Mode include a low-power mode to conserve the vehicle's battery reserves when it's parked, as well as floodlights under the side mirrors to illuminate the campsite.

Two models of Optima Power Station trailers are on display. The first one is named the Kitchen Turtle, and it features an electric stove and sink, as well as an integrated 45-gallon water tank. The other trailer is called the Utility Turtle, and it provides space for a pile of camping gear and two motorcycles. Whatever you plan to do on your overlanding adventure, either one of these innovative Power Station trailers should vastly enhance your experience. Just don't expect them to be cheap - all that available lithium power is sure to cost a fortune, and the folding solar panels won't be inexpensive, either.