Satisfactory has more than a few vehicles, and most of them make your life significantly easier. While most of them take a while to unlock, they are well worth the investment and are more or less essential to creating a functioning and efficient factory.
That said, not all vehicles are created equal. Most are built to serve a specific purpose, and at their highest level, there are a few different vehicles you'll likely use. But early on, you'll unlock some that get more or less upgraded versions over time.
6 Factory shopping cart
The Factory Cart is definitely a limited-use vehicle, but it does the job well for what it's meant to do. It's a small thing, with minimal inventory and an inability to drive properly over rough terrain without losing most, if not all, control.
But, it's not really meant for all of that. The Factory Cart is there to get you from one end of the artificial factory to the other, on smooth surfaces and through tight spaces. And in this job, the factory shopping cart is superior. It's one of those vehicles that you grow attached to over time without even realizing it, like a friend.
5 tractor
The tractor is one of the first vehicles you can unlock in the game, and while it will eventually outgrow the ones you get later, it's still useful while you have it. It doesn't have a lot of inventory, but it will be more than enough for your needs, especially early on.
Overall, the tractor is cheap and reliable. It can't do everything some other vehicles can, but it does what it does consistently. Harder terrain isn't too much of a problem, and you'll eventually get from point A to point B. If you are not in a hurry, you will be fine with the tractor.
4 truck
The truck is basically a direct upgrade from the tractor in every department. It has a much larger inventory and is similarly versatile, although its larger size, especially with the larger wheels, enables it to have an easier time in some of the more difficult-to-traffic areas.
That's not to say the truck beats anything else, just that it's a great mid-range option once you unlock it. There's no real reason to go back to the tractor, but there are better vehicles, which we'll see in a minute.
3 explorer
Explorer is best for what it's namesake does: explore. It's the most fun vehicle to tour, with some good speed but also some good all-terrain capabilities. This will get you around your world in style, allowing you to locate the resource nodes you desperately need and set up more permanent transport routes.
The Explorer has limited hauling capacity, but it's surprisingly outdone by the truck. You won't unlock it until you've had it for a while, but once you do, you'll be zooming back and forth across your world in no time.
2 drone
The last two vehicles on this list are both the best at what they do when it comes to performance. A drone is ranked where it is simply because it's not going to do as much as the next vehicle. That said, it's the best choice for moving smaller amounts of hard-to-reach resources on absolutely any terrain.
It doesn't really matter what path the drone has to take because it is flying over the ground and not over it. It can easily cross mountains, lakes, and everything in between. The inventory size is not particularly high, but the items can be trusted to be well taken care of.
1 train
The train surpasses other land vehicles in terms of carrying capacity and adaptability as well as energy efficiency. Due to the nature of the train, it has the least maneuverability and requires more installation than anything else. But once you set the song, you don't need to worry about this.
The train also has an absolutely outrageous carrying capacity. It takes a lot of resources to set up, and more as you go, but once it's set up, you can get great rewards from the stops along the way. To connect distant resource nodes and smaller factories to a larger one, there is no better choice than the train.
