Two vehicles with almost nothing in common landed on the same list. Top Gear’s U.S. edition picked the Rivian R2, an electric SUV from a young automaker, for its SUV prize, and a 777-horsepower supercharged pickup from Ram for its truck prize.
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Both honors came in the TopGear.com U.S. Car Awards 2027, published Oct. 28 and updated Nov. 2, the same program that gave Subaru’s Trailseeker its top car honor. The two winners pull in opposite directions: a quiet cabin praised for physical controls on one side, and an engine-first truck praised for what it does to a rival’s spec sheet on the other.
Rivian R2 and the judges’ case against a shaky EV maker
Top Gear’s write-up, summarized in its awards roundup, calls the R2 refreshing and relaxed among 2026’s SUVs and says it does not feel like the product of a company on the verge of collapse, a contrast the editors draw with the failed startups Fisker and Faraday Future. Ollie Kew, TopGear.com’s deputy editor, wrote that the R2 “looks terrific — futuristic yet unfussy.”
According to Rivian’s own story about the award, posted Nov. 6, the editors called it the best SUV in America, ahead of gas, hybrid and electric rivals, and singled out the design, the physical controls, the premium materials and the performance. The EV Report quotes Kew saying the R2 “has so much going for it as a car, not just as an EV,” and describes his praise for physical wheel controls as meaning less jabbing at a touchscreen and more attention on the road. RJ Scaringe, Rivian’s founder and CEO, said it is “incredible for R2 to be recognized by Top Gear as SUV of the Year.”
Kew also cited the cabin’s hessian floor mats, fabrics and open-pore wood in the EV Report’s account, the kind of material detail that rarely decides a mainstream SUV award. Neither Rivian’s page nor the EV Report gives an R2 price, a specification list or delivery timing, which leaves the judges’ praise resting on design and driving impressions.
A Hemi that was supposed to be shelved
Top Gear’s truck pick centers on a 6.2-liter Hemi V8 that, in the roundup’s telling, was shelved during Stellantis’s downsizing and then retuned to blow the Raptor R’s 720 horsepower off the spec sheet. Stellantis’s own release for what it badges the 2027 Ram 1500 SRT TRX puts output at 777 horsepower and 680 lb-ft of torque, from that 6.2-liter engine with a 2.4-liter twin-screw supercharger, driving through an eight-speed automatic and a full-time active transfer case.
The company claims 0-to-60 mph in 3.5 seconds with launch control and a top speed of 118 mph. Starting price is $99,995 plus $2,595 for destination, and the release said showrooms would receive the truck in the second half of 2026. Tim Kuniskis, Stellantis’s head of American brands, framed the target in that release as “777 horsepower? That’s the mark.”
The release says torque is up 40 lb-ft on the 2024 model and that the truck was designed and engineered in the United States. Against the Raptor R’s 720 horsepower, 777 leaves a margin of 57 horsepower on paper, which is the number Top Gear’s pun about the spec sheet is built on.
Kuniskis also collected Top Gear’s Person of the Year award in the same program, an entry that credits his habit of pushing past “good enough” with cars that wheelie and trucks that jump.
Last year’s SUV and truck winners
Top Gear introduced the 2027 class as a set of eleven awards. Alongside the SUV and truck picks, the Subaru Trailseeker won Car of the Year, the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1X was Supercar of the Year, and BMW was Manufacturer of the Year. The R2 and the TRX are the two vehicles in the group that most directly represent where their makers are placing bets: an electric crossover for an automaker that has to prove it can last, and a loud gasoline truck for a brand that had to revive an engine.
The previous cycle’s picks, released Dec. 10, 2025 and archived on Top Gear’s winners page, went to the Cadillac Lyriq-V for SUV and the Rivian R1T Quad Motor for truck. Rivian has therefore now taken the truck prize one year and the SUV prize the next, with different vehicles each time, while Ram arrives as the first of the pair to win on the strength of a gasoline V8 that the company’s downsizing had set aside.
The CarPro summary of the 2027 results lists every winner from the Trailseeker to the Tesla Semi but does not describe the R2 or the Ram in detail, so the reasoning above comes from Top Gear’s own text and the company releases. What remains unanswered in those documents is the R2’s price and when buyers can expect delivery, details that Rivian’s page leaves to its R2 website.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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