Rivian R1T put through its paces off-road in new video about development

Today is the unofficial 2020 truck day. Lordstown just showed off the Endurance pickup at a reveal event that quickly spiraled into a Mike Pence campaign rally. Ford will show off the redesigned F-150 tonight, and Ram has teased the Hellcat-powered TRX pickup. Rivian hopping onboard is just a little icing on the multi-layer cake.

This video at the top is an entertaining watch from Rivian — it’s also posted to the company’s YouTube page. It shows a barely camouflaged R1T going through all sorts of off-road testing, but it ends with drifting around corners on a race track. The only logical conclusion here is that the first drive event for this truck will require a skid pad nearby, because what good is a truck if it can’t expertly drift around corners?

All this testing is taking place during the pandemic, as the engineers’ masks indicate. The truck is shown crashing over rocks and climbing up hills. Rivian made sure to mention its strong underbody battery protection back when the truck was revealed, with one of the benefits being the ability to handle off-roading like this. As development continues, production plans have slipped backwards due to the coronavirus. Still, we expect to see the electric pickup make its way to consumers in 2021.

Also, here’s a shout-out to whoever did the camouflage/wrap design on this truck. It’s perfect for the kind of abuse Rivian is putting it through.

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