This might be Rivian’s most impressive flex yet.
Over the weekend, the company’s battery-powered truck, the R1T, became the first EV to win the annual Rebelle Rally. If that wasn’t impressive enough, the pickup that finished atop the race’s premier 4×4 class was completely stock.
Established in 2016, the Rebelle is the U.S.’s only pen-and-paper off-road navigation rally raid for women. That means that professional and amateur drivers who compete in the race can’t use GPS or cell phones as a guide during the seven-day event. The rally, which covers over 1,500 miles of stunning terrain across the California and Nevada desert, is also the nation’s longest.
The winner of this year’s rally was the Limestone Legends team, which takes its name from the color of its 2023 R1T. The team is made up of driver Lilly Macaruso and navigator Alex Anderson. Both women are Rivian employees, with Macaruso working as a senior projects engineer and Anderson as a senior mechanical engineer. This was their second time competing in the rally, having placed fourth and taken home the “Rookie of the Year” award last year.
The duo has even more to celebrate after this year’s rally. Their R1T claimed 1,395 points, or 88 percent of those available, in finishing first. After a “rollercoaster” final day, they beat out 4xEventure’s 2024 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 4xe, which finished with 1,359 points, and Dirt Hustle’s 2023 Ford Bronco Raptor, which ended with 1,301 points, according to a blog post on the event’s website. In the X-Cross class, which is for crossovers, team Built Wild’s 2022 Ford Bronco Sport came out on top.
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Limestone Legends’s pickup wasn’t the only R1T that competed in this year’s Rebelle Rally. In total, four R1Ts were part of the 4×4 field, with the other placing 11th, 20th, and 30th (the one X-Cross EV, a 2023 Ford Mustang Mach-E Rally, placed fifth). All the EVs participating in this year’s race got help from Renewable Solutions, which brought a semi-truck filled with batteries to the rally to provide remote charging when needed.