R1T 21's vs. 22's Tires & Wheels: Differences observed from swap (Michelin Defender EV tires)

Rivian Blue · 2025-04-01T08:59:34+00:00

Ever since I got my R1S, I've noticed that the battery range estimation hasn't been the best. Driving a Tesla for the last 3 years, it never had this kind of issue. During my last trip, the driver display shows 255mi remaining. My total trip (including 2 destinations) is 160mi so I believed I should be able to make it easily with a nice cushion. But the center display showed that I would arrive at first destination with 4mi remaining, and run out before the second destination! I knew this was false so I made the drive anyway, and arrived at second destination with 50mi remaining. If I understand correctly, the driver display range is simply the total rated range multiplied by SOC. That makes sense here, since my vehicle is rated for 370mi, 255mi is 68.9%. Coming from Tesla, I expect the number shown in the center display should account for factors like elevation, wind, traffic speed, etc. It's sad that my own mental estimation is better than Rivian's.

J's Rivian

New member

Mar 17, 2025

When I first took delivery of my truck, it came with the 21" rims and stock tires. Well those tires lasted about 16x miles and I got down to the wear bars. I later bought a set of 22" stock darks and changed out the tires to the new Michelin Defender EV tires.

I wanted to share a few differences that I noticed. First off the efficiency was a bit less compared to the road tires. Although i didn't carry out any scientific testing, and honestly I drove too erratically to give you all honest efficiency numbers. Just casual observation from the 15 min guess o meter showed instead of regularly getting 2.5 I got closer to 2.2 and I did notice an extra couple percent energy used for each normal errand I ran. Nothing to be bent out of shape over for my use though.

Handling overall was improved by a pretty good amount. Where I live is pretty much the perfect fun road course as the roads are winding, and most roads are very similar. The 22's gave me an easy 10mph higher corner speed with the same level of comfort for me.

Road noise was maybe a touch greater but nothing really impactful and I do not have the reinforced underbody so I could hear it. Ride quality over bumps was a little bit more sensitive although the roads here are all in good shape and I keep my truck in sport low and the bigger rims haven't really forced me to change that. Overall I was much happier with the look and the driving characteristics of the 22's.