电动皮卡 Rivian R1T 荣获 MotorTrend 年度卡车大奖

在 Lucid Air 荣获年度汽车奖仅一个月后，Rivian R1T 刚刚荣获 2022 MotorTrend 年度卡车奖。

在每种情况下，这都是汽车制造商第一次凭借其首款车型获得该奖项。特斯拉凭借特斯拉 Model S 赢得了 2013 年的年度汽车大奖，这是一家初创汽车制造商的另一款电动汽车，但这是特斯拉继最初的特斯拉 Roadster 之后的第二款车型。

MotorTrend 于 1949 年以印刷杂志起家，现在还经营有线和流媒体视频频道，并号称是世界上最大的汽车媒体公司。其年度“年度”奖项可追溯到该杂志创刊之日，受到汽车制造商的追捧，并在获奖后在广告中大肆宣传。

Rivian R1T 也是自 2008 年以来第一辆不是由传统底特律三大汽车制造商制造的卡车赢得该奖项。

MotorTrend 编辑部负责人 Ed Loh 表示，Rivian 的胜利比 Lucid 更引人注目，因为皮卡车所代表的挑战。

Loh 说，卡车需要执行比汽车更广泛的功能，同时提供舒适的乘坐体验和良好的驾驶体验。 MotorTrend 的作者说，卡车制造商在设计新车型时也往往相当保守，不想冒险经过验证和高利润的设计。美国最畅销的汽车是福特 F 系列和雪佛兰 Silverado。

MotorTrend 在其公告中指出，这使得 Rivian 卡车更加引人注目。今年入围该奖项的还有其他非传统皮卡，例如另一款全电动卡车 GMC Hummer EV 和现代 Santa Cruz，后者本质上是一款带有开放式货箱的跨界 SUV。

Rivian R1T 是第一款带有四个电机的商用电动汽车，每个电机为每个车轮提供动力。这允许更大的越野能力，因为可以将动力精确地发送到具有最大牵引力的车轮。根据 MotorTrend 的说法，在人行道上行驶时，它还有助于转弯，使 R1T 的公路性能与豪华轿车相似。

在测试 Rivian 的竞争对手悍马 EV 时，MotorTrend 的工作人员对这辆卡车的动力和速度印象深刻，但对其巨大的重量（超过 9,000 磅）或刹车没有印象，据作者说，这些都无法完成任务快速停止所有质量。

R1T 的车身在床和乘客驾驶室之间没有像大多数卡车那样的间隙。这并不完全是独一无二的——像今年另一位决赛选手福特 Maverick 和本田 Ridgeline 这样的小型卡车也没有这种差距——但 Rivian 的设计师使用了可用的车身区域来包括一个横跨卡车的货运隧道，而这个差距本来是.当打开时，封闭式货物区域的门也可以用作侧台阶，将床伸向屋顶。 R1T 的引擎盖下还有一个很大的存储区域。

MotorTrend 的作者还称赞了 Rivian 的室内设计和材料，称它们对得起卡车 70,000 美元的价格标签。虽然 MotorTrend 的工作人员并不关心 R1T 对触摸屏的许多车辆功能的严重依赖，但他们表示，该界面至少相当易于使用。

MotorTrend 是 Discovery Inc. 共同拥有的合资企业的一部分。 CNN 是 WarnerMedia 的一部分，预计明年将与 Discovery 合并。

根据提交给美国证券交易委员会的文件，Rivian 最近才开始为客户制造 R1T，最初的生产速度非常缓慢。 Loh 说，像 Lucid 和 Rivian 这样的初创公司是否能够在未来几年为其客户提供车辆和服务并不是该奖项的真正考虑因素。

“它是年度汽车。它是年度卡车，”他说。 “这不是年度商业计划。”

他指出，当特斯拉在 2013 年获奖时，怀疑论者也提出了类似的担忧，特斯拉成为全球最畅销的电动汽车制造商。

MotorTrend，然后拼写为 Motor Trend，于 1949 年颁发了第一个年度汽车奖。当时，该奖项授予了一个整体汽车品牌，凯迪拉克获胜。第一个年度卡车奖于 1977 年授予福特 Econoline 厢式货车——也被认为是卡车——但在 1980 年至 1989 年期间根本没有颁发该奖项。汽车趋势的年度奖项并不总是市场成功的预测指标。 2002 年，年度最佳汽车奖颁给了复古风格的福特雷鸟，此后仅在三年后继续生产。

如今，该奖项授予为新车型年全新或完全重新设计的个别车型。

The Rivian R1T, an electric pickup, wins MotorTrend Truck of the Year Award

Some brand new car companies are hitting huge home runs with groundbreaking new vehicles, according to the staff at MotorTrend.

The Rivian R1T has just been awarded the 2022 MotorTrend Truck of the Year Award just a month after the Lucid Air won the Car of the Year award.

In each case, it was the first time any automaker has won the award with its first vehicle. Tesla won Car of the Year in 2013 with the Tesla Model S, another electric vehicle from a startup automaker, but that was Tesla's second model, after the original Tesla Roadster.

MotorTrend, which started as a print magazine in 1949, now also operates cable and streaming video channels and boasts of being the world's largest automotive media company. Its annual "Of the Year" awards, which date back to the magazine's founding, are sought after by auto manufacturers and, when won, are touted in ads.

The Rivian R1T is also the first truck not made by one of the traditional Detroit's Big Three automakers to win the award since 2008.

Ed Loh, head of editorial for MotorTrend, said Rivian's win is even more remarkable than Lucid's because of the challenge pickup trucks represent.

Trucks are called upon to perform a much broader range of functions than cars, said Loh, while providing a comfortable ride and good driving experience. Truck manufacturers also tend to be rather conservative when designing new models, MotorTrend writers said, not wanting to risk proven and highly profitable designs. The top selling vehicles in America are the Ford F-series and Chevrolet Silverado.

That makes the Rivian truck all the more striking, MotorTrend noted in its announcement. This year's finalists for the award included other nontraditional pickups such as the GMC Hummer EV, another all-electric truck, and the Hyundai Santa Cruz, which is essentially a crossover SUV with an open cargo bed.

The Rivian R1T is the first commercially available electric vehicle with four motors, one to power each individual wheel. That allows greater off-road capability, because power can be sent precisely to the wheels with the most traction. When driving on pavement, it also helps with cornering, giving the R1T on-road similar performance to a luxury sedan, according to MotorTrend.

When testing the Rivian's competitor, the Hummer EV, MotorTrend staffers were impressed with that truck's power and quickness, but not with its enormous weight (over 9,000 pounds) or with its brakes, which, according to the writers, weren't up the task of quickly stopping all that mass.

The R1T's body has no gap between the bed and passenger cab the way most trucks do. That's not entirely unique -— smaller trucks like the Ford Maverick, another finalist this year, and Honda Ridgeline also lack that gap — but Rivian designers used that available body area to include a cargo tunnel that runs across the truck where that gap would have been. When open, doors to that enclosed cargo area can also be used as side steps to reach into the bed up onto the roof. The R1T also has a big storage area under its hood.

MotorTrend's writers also lauded the Rivian's interior design and materials calling them worthy of the truck's $70,000 price tag. While MotorTrend staffers didn't care for the R1T's heavy reliance on a touch screen for many vehicle functions, they said the interface was at least reasonably easy to use.

MotorTrend is part of a joint venture co-owned by Discovery Inc. CNN is part of WarnerMedia which is expected to merge with Discovery next year.

Rivian only recently began building the the R1T for customers and production was, initially, very slow, according to documents filed with Securities and Exchange Commission. Whether startup companies like Lucid and Rivian will be able to supply vehicles and service to their customers in the years ahead wasn't really a consideration for the award, Loh said.

"It's Car of the Year. It's Truck of the Year," he said. "It's not Business Plan of the Year."

Skeptics raised similar concern when Tesla won the award in 2013, he pointed out, and Tesla went to become the world's best-selling maker of electric vehicles.

MotorTrend, then spelled Motor Trend, gave out its first Car of the Year award in 1949. At the time, the award was given to an overall car brand and Cadillac won. The first Truck of the Year award was given in 1977 to the Ford Econoline van — also considered a truck — but the award wasn't given at all between 1980 and 1989. Motor Trend's annual awards aren't always predictors of market success. In 2002, the Car of the Year award went to the retro-styled Ford Thunderbird, which continued in production only three more years after that.

Today, the awards are given to individual vehicle models that are either entirely new or completely redesigned for the new model year.