The Rivian Electric Truck Trounces the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Redeye
This is not a head-to-head I expected to write. You cannot even write a traditional head-to-head comparing the Charger Hellcat sedan and Rivian electric truck: they’re completely different vehicles. The 2022 Dodge Charger Hellcat is one of the last, great American muscle cars. It may be the end of an era, but if so it’s an exclamation mark. The Rivian R1T is the first electric truck to market. It is marketed as an eco-friendly way to explore the outdoors. But to our surprise, now that the Rivian is out, its proving it can blow the doors off a Dodge Charger Hellcat Redeye at the drag strip–and in the twisties.
| 2021 Dodge Charger Hellcat Redeye | 2022 Rivian R1T | |
| Horsepower | 797 | 835 |
| Torque | 650 lb-ft | 908 lb-ft |
| 0-60 MPH | 4.0 seconds | 3.1 seconds |
| 1/4-mile | 11.90 seconds @ 126 MPH | 11.60 seconds @ 110.8 MPH |
2022 Rivian R1T vs 2022 Dodge Charger Hellcat Redeye 0-60 MPH
MotorTrend conducts controlled 0-60 MPH runs with every car it tests. They found the 2021 Dodge Charger Hellcat Redeye’s best time to 60 MPH was 4.0 seconds. When the publication conducted an identical test on the 2022 Rivian R1T, it found the electric truck could accelerate to 60 MPH in just 3.1 seconds. Isn’t the Hellcat supposed to be a drag race machine? What gives?
The Charger Hellcat Redeye’s main obstacle in laying down an impressive 0-60 time is traction. On street tires, 797 horsepower is a lot to put down to just two wheels. For comparison’s sake, each of the Hellcat Redeye’s rear tires must transfer more power to the pavement than each of the AWD, 1,479 horsepower Bugatti Chiron’s tires. MotorTrend pointed out that when you stomp the gas at 50 MPH, the Charger Hellcat Redeye’s tires still break loose.
An AWD drivetrain would do wonders for the Hellcat Redeye’s 0-60 time. Dodge claims its AWD Durango Hellcat is actually slightly faster to 60 MPH than the Charger. The 4WD Ram 1500 TRX is only 0.1 seconds slower.
The secret to the Rivian’s 0-60 time is its ability to put torque to the pavement. Every one of these electric trucks features the Rivian quad-motor drive system. With one 200+ horsepower motor at each wheel, the Rivian spins each tire just as fast as it can without burning out. MotorTrend found that when its reviewer pressed the brakes, floored the accelerator, then released the brakes, the truck achieved its fastest acceleration times.
2022 Rivian R1T vs 2022 Dodge Charger Hellcat Redeye 1/4-mile
In the Dodge Charger Hellcat Redeye’s defense, accelerating to 60 MPH is not its strongest metric. One of the amazing things about this sports sedan’s supercharged engine is that it continues to pull hard at 50 MPH, all the way up to 200 MPH. At such high speeds, its RWD traction is not as much of an issue and its weight keeps it stable. In the 1/4-mile, the Charger Hellcat Redeye’s numbers are much closer to the Rivian truck. But the Rivian still ekes out a win.
MotorTrend found that even after its (relatively) slower start, the Charger Hellcat Redeye can run the 1/4-mile as fast as 11.90 seconds at 126 MPH. In the same 11 seconds, the electric Rivian truck gets off to a quicker start, but finishes the 1/4-mile at a lower top speed. On the factory street tire option, the Rivian R1T’s best MotorTrend-tested 1/4-mile was 11.60 seconds at 110.8 MPH.
Speaking of tires, you can also order the Rivian R1T with knobby off-road tires from the factory. MotorTrend tested this alternative rubber and found it cut into all on-road performance metrics. It would be interesting to see the Rivian’s times while wearing drag racing tires, but no owners have opted for this aftermarket upgrade yet.
Dodge, for its part, has attempted to alleviate the Charger Hellcat Redeye’s traction issues with the factory Widebody kit. You can shell out an additional $4,000 to bump the width of all four tires from 9-inches to 11-inches. Dodge claims that the resulting Charger Hellcat Redeye Widebody can actually beat the Rivian in the 1/4 mile, laying down a 10.96 second time.
2022 Rivian R1T vs 2022 Dodge Charger Hellcat Redeye Cornering
The new Charger Hellcat Redeye has track-tuned suspension. According to MotorTrend, the team at SRT has dialed back previous suspension tunes to better handle the globs of power it makes. It performs acceptably, but on the track it is showing its age.
The 2022 Rivian R1T electric truck, however, blew the MotorTrend reviewers away in the twisties. The team decided the fully-loaded truck can corner aswell as an elite sports sedan. It leverages a technology called torque-vectoring to put more power to its tires on the outside of the corner and accelerate through the apex. The MotorTrend editors tried to break its wheels loose but only managed to go faster.
“We felt the R1T’s torque-vectoring superpowers at work: The outside-rear motor powered up and brought the R1T’s nose around, and we blasted out of the turn like the Millennium Falcon.”
MotorTrend
Rivian did not set out to beat the Charger Hellcat Redeye at what it does best, with a truck. Instead, it assembled a technologically-advanced 4×4 EV. If the future is electric, the future is fast.
