- Rivian’s Tank Turn is the Twirl-a-Whirl of car tricks.
- The fully electric Rivian R1T pickup and R1S SUV are still nearly a year away.
- The real trick will be performing the Tank Turn on pavement…
However useless this trick twirl-a-whirl may seem, it does demonstrate the potential in offering a vehicle with an electric motor in each wheel. By allowing motors on each side to turn in opposite direction from each other, Rivian has demonstrated their trick Tank Turn.
The name “Tank Turn” is self-explanatory. If you’ve ever noticed how or watched a video on how an actual tank turns sharply or rotates, Rivian’s quick video makes sense. Well, how it works at the very least. While this “technique” is not new (there are many videos on YouTube depicting various vehicles rotating) Rivian will be the first carmaker to offer it on production vehicles.
What Rivian’s “Tank Turn” really shows is how versatile and functional individual and independent electric motors (one behind each wheel, but not necessarily wheel-mounted) can and will be. Being able to directly control power at each wheel, and opposite to cutting it via ABS brakes or true torque vectoring, will enable a Rivian R1T or R1S not only to handle impressively well but off the beaten path, it’s almost impossible to think that any surface will ever stop it.
Clearly, the “Tank Turn” function is designed to be used on slippery surfaces like snow, ice or, as depicted in the video, mud. On pavement, things could go wrong and breakages occur…
Source: Rivian’s Twitter account
