The virus we’re all very much over hearing about may have killed Rivian’s tie-up with Lincoln, but its own electric vehicle aspirations remain—if a little behind schedule. Indeed, testing of the electric R1T pickup truck carries on in Arizona, where Rivian has filmed R1T prototypes goofing off undergoing very serious, important testing. Like rock crawling, drifting, and presumably, enough tank turns to make even a carnie dizzy.
Rivian gave the public a glimpse of this smiles-compulsory testing process in a video posted to its YouTube channel, which showcases an R1T in a cutesy camouflage pattern depicting the many outdoor activities it can facilitate. But since Rivian is there to torture-test the truck before it goes on sale rather than canoe, it wastes no time unleashing the R1T’s reported 750 horsepower, which are said to give it a zero-to-60 time of as little as three seconds.
Being available from zero rpm, all that power can if carefully metered make the R1T clamber over boulders like a mountain goat. And because the batteries that supply said power are mounted down low, beneath the cabin, the R1T maneuvers more like a rally car than a yacht. It’s starting to look like a worthy competitor for the new Ford F-150 Raptor and Ram TRX, albeit one for people who prefer to hoon in stealthy silence.
All this only serves to whet the appetite for the R1T’s SUV-bodied sister model, the R1S, which will presumably be just as capable on all surfaces as the R1T. It is expected to arrive on the market shortly after the R1T, which should hopefully be in our hands for testing within a year.
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