Up Close and Personal With Rivian’s First One-Off, the R1S Quad Pebble Beach Edition
This gorgeous showcase of Rivian’s custom capabilities won’t be the last one-of-one the company builds.
Alex LeanseWriterAmir SaidiPhotographerManufacturerPhotographerAug 13, 2025
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Update: The R1S Pebble Beach sold for $175,000 at the The Broad Arrow Monterey Jet Center Auction on Wednesday, August 13th, handily beating the pre-auction estimate of $130,000.
Exclusivity defines truly special cars. It’s no secret that more discerning clients are often drawn to limited-run and bespoke vehicles such as Rivian’s early Launch Edition and more recent California Dune Edition models. But there’s another level of exclusive, a rarefied air that the young brand is entering thanks to the creation its first truly one-off vehicle: the R1S Quad Pebble Beach Edition.
Based on the 2026 R1S SUV fitted with Rivian’s stupendous signature four-motor powertrain, the Pebble Beach Edition stands apart from every other R1S thanks to unique colors, materials, and trim. Each piece was carefully curated by the brand’s craftspeople, with much of it hand-finished at Rivian’s Southern California design studio.
We saw the R1S Pebble Beach prior to its auction during this year’s Monterey Car Week. Touring the SUV with Rivian design chief Jeff Hammoud, the textures and tones are intended to evoke that of the region’s idyllic coast. More than a design showcase, the vehicle also marks the debut of the Rivian Studio Originals program.
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Hypercar Paint
Perhaps the most prominent feature of the R1S Pebble Beach is its stunning paint. Called Monterey Silver, it’s inspired by the golden hour light glistening off ocean water. Under changing light, the champagne tone shifts to reveal a bluish hue.
Applied in a four-step, nine-layer process, Monterey Silver has a finish akin to liquid metal—in fact, it’s very similar to the coveted Liquid Metal Silver offered for the legendary Porsche 918 Spyder. Hammoud revealed that Rivian’s paint uses the same base ingredients as Porsche’s for a similarly lustrous metallic glow.
Rivian’s First One-Off Model Is the R1S Pebble Beach Edition
Rivian’s First One-Off Model Is the R1S Pebble Beach Edition
“With production paint, we’re limited by suppliers and mass-production methods, but with this project, we could do whatever we wanted,” Hammoud said. “That was part of the fun: tuning the color knowing that cost wasn’t a constraint.” It’s not just the paint that’s similar, either. At 2.4 seconds from 0 to 60 mph, the 918 Spyder is just barely quicker than the R1S Quad.
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Reject Wood
Uniformity is key for stylists when selecting a vehicle’s trim and materials. Whatever decor is used must appear consistent across thousands of units. But as a one-off, the R1S Quad Pebble Beach was free from those constraints. For example, the SUV’s cabin uses spalted olive ash wood, which features dark marbling throughout the grain caused by a fungal infection while the tree was living. Although that can create variations unsuitable for mass production, spalted wood is highly valued by woodworkers and gives sophisticated texture to this unique SUV.
“Things like this will normally be rejected from production, but where some would see a defect, we thought it could elevate the vehicle and make it more unique,” Hammoud said. “We’re only able to do that because it’s a one of one.”
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Bespoke Wheels
Although no larger than what’s available on any R1S, the Pebble Beach Edition’s 22-inch wheels are one—well, four—of a kind. Their painted accents match the SUV, not only its Monterey Silver body but also the gunmetal gray and dark chocolate brown applied to its roof and body cladding. Brake calipers in Laguna Blue are a sign of the quad-motor powertrain.
Hammoud showed us more than a dozen wheel color concepts—just a small part of the design exploration behind this vehicle. “Before we even chose this wheel, we went through many other styles we really liked,” he said. “Some of them I can’t show here because we’ll probably use them for production.”
Not Only Hardware
Even software in the R1S Pebble Beach gets custom treatment. Every Rivian has an illustration of itself in its infotainment and mobile app, including this one. Here, the software team stepped in to ensure the R1S Pebble Beach is rendered accurately with its unique paint and wheels in digital representations, too.
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Skunkworks Clue
A color gradient is seen throughout the R1S Pebble Beach, on its sisal floormats, metal speaker grates, cloth dashboard trim, and even the key fob and built-in flashlight. Designers used dyeing, painting, anodization, and powder coating to apply it consistently across different materials. Symbolic of a coastal sunset, the colors are also a hidden reference.
“The Rivian Adventure Department (RAD) is a small group of passionate people within the company that get together to do things not from a marketing perspective but from passion,” Hammoud said. Examples of its involvement include racing in the Rebelle Rally and at Pikes Peak. Its influence is trickling down to Rivian models through the RAD Tuner feature.
RAD’s team colors? Burnt red, teal blue, and iconic Compass Yellow, all worked into the R1S Pebble Beach Edition’s gradient details as a nod to Rivian’s in-house innovators.
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It’s Beautiful—But Why?
Rivian needs to grow, an objective that will be advanced by the upcoming smaller 2026 R2 and 2027 R3 SUVs. But that doesn’t mean it’s moving downmarket, as the R1S Quad Pebble Beach Edition indicates a desire to continue to serve well-heeled clientele.
“From a pricing perspective, we haven’t found the ceiling for R1 vehicles and our Rivian brand,” Hammoud said. “Our goal with attending Pebble Beach is to understand the demographics there. We wanted to see how we would be received by going elevated, while maintaining the rugged capability and inviting feel of a Rivian.” The R1S Pebble Beach was a way for Rivian to step outside of its own boundaries and see how customers respond.
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Rivian Studio Originals
That’s what Rivian Studio Originals was created to accomplish. “We want to approach it like a sneaker drop,” Hammoud said. “Studio Originals lets us get more expressive and experimental around colors, materials, and design.” In essence, it lets Rivian’s stylists remove mass manufacturing from the equation, allowing the team to push boundaries and show more of the brand’s personality they wouldn’t normally be able to do otherwise, Hammoud said.
The R1S Pebble Beach is the first Studio Originals vehicle, one that’s already generating buzz among Rivian fans—and the automaker is paying attention. “Studio Originals will be a great way to get customer feedback,” Hammoud said. “With the Pebble Beach Edition, people are saying they love Monterey Silver, asking if we can do it for production. We wouldn’t do it exactly, but we might now invest in the color space for something similar.”
The 2026 R1S Quad Pebble Beach Edition represents an exciting moment for Rivian as it works to continue to define itself. Asked if it would be the last vehicle to come from Studio Originals, Hammoud responded simply: “No.”
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Alex Leanse
Alex’s earliest memory is of a teal 1993 Ford Aspire, the car that sparked his automotive obsession. He’s never driven that tiny hatchback—at six feet, 10 inches tall, he likely wouldn’t fit—but has assessed hundreds of other vehicles, sharing his insights on MotorTrend as a writer and video host.
