One of many coolest options on early Rivian R1Ts was the camp kitchen, which was a large modular kitchen that slid out from the R1T’s gear tunnel between the pickup mattress and passenger compartment and contained a cooktop, a sink, and a full set of pots and pans. Sadly the camp kitchen stays vaporware, however Rivian lately confirmed its new journey kitchen which isn’t anyplace close to as cool because the camp kitchen, however will likely be appropriate with R1, R2, and R3 fashions.
YouTuber Brian Tong attended a Rivian occasion the place the corporate debuted the brand new journey kitchen design, which is a large, flat floor, with half of it devoted to being a two-burner induction cooktop, and the opposite half as counter house with a pull-out drawer for some storage of small objects. In contrast to the camp kitchen which had a sink and enormous merchandise storage, the brand new journey kitchen is rather more compact, however doesn’t supply a sink or any massive merchandise cupboard space. The sliding drawer does have sufficient house for a set of utensils, a slicing board, and house for different shallow kitchen accoutrement.
One other advantage of the journey kitchen is its worth. The place the camp kitchen was purported to price $5,000 and by no means went on sale, the journey kitchen will likely be obtainable beginning this week for a worth of $1,400. Although the Rivian staff wouldn’t present Tong how the journey kitchen will fold, it seems like it could fold in half proper down the center. The camp kitchen is powered by plugging it into one of many energy shops situated within the rear of Rivians, it rests on the tailgate, and has two deployable poles which have a string of dimmable LED lights throughout the highest to light up your cooking surfaces.
Whereas the brand new journey kitchen is nowhere close to as spectacular because the camp kitchen idea was, it’s considerably cheaper, and most significantly it’s nearer to being obtainable for Rivian homeowners to buy. Might you simply purchase a two-burner induction cooktop and a folding desk? Completely, and it could be considerably cheaper than Rivian’s journey kitchen, however it wouldn’t be on-brand. Regardless of the disappointing lack of the gear tunnel camp kitchen, Rivian nonetheless deserves props for providing the journey kitchen as a nifty choice for outdoorsy sorts.