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In our test of an early-build truck, we only saw a peak charging rate of 185 kW, which is 84 percent of what Rivian claims it'll reach on a DC fast charger.

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). A more comprehensive review of the 2022 Rivian R1T can be found here.

Rivian claims that its R1T electric pickup can withstand peak charging rates of up to 220 kilowatts on a DC fast charger. In the future, it says, its vehicles will be able to accept energy at a rate of 300-plus kilowatts after an over-the-air update. This would put it in the league of Lucid, which already touts 300 kilowatts; Tesla, which CEO Elon Musk says will soon upgrade its Supercharger network to more than 300 kilowatts; and the Porsche Taycan, which can currently accept up to 270 kilowatts.

But for now, as seen in our fast-charging test from 10 to 90 percent state of charge of a 2022 R1T Launch Edition with the Large pack (128.9 kWh) battery, it couldn't get to its current claimed peak. However, this was an early-build truck. We saw a max of 185 kilowatts, and it stayed there for about a minute right around a 25 percent state of charge. Shortly after, it fell to 90 kilowatts before jumping back up to 117 at around 50 percent charge. A Tesla Model S Plaid, on the other hand, held its 250-kW peak for almost five minutes in our test.

High peak-charging rates are impressive, but what really matters in the quest to shorten charging stops is the average rate. The Rivian took a total of 72 minutes to recharge its battery from 10 to 90 percent, adding 117.0 kWh total, or an average rate of 97.5 kilowatts. That's behind the average rates we've seen from other luxury electric players such as the Tesla Model S Plaid (125 kW), which is the quickest we've measured to date, as well as the Audi e-tron (121 kW) and the Porsche Taycan 4S (118 kW).

All of the non-Tesla tests referenced above were conducted at the same 350-kW Electrify America DC fast charger near our Ann Arbor, Michigan, headquarters. Parked next to us this time was another in the dramatic uprising of EV pickups, a GMC Hummer EV test vehicle.

Rivian is planning to launch more than 3500 DC fast chargers at more than 600 locations across North America by the end of 2023 on its Rivian Adventure network. Perhaps by then the company will have enough real-world experience to increase its charging speeds to match the leaders. Read our full road test of this 2022 Rivian R1T, and check back for more EV charging tests in the future to see how they improve over time.

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