Watch Rivian R1T electric pickup being stress tested in the desert

Rivian has released an awesome video of them testing their R1T electric pickup in the desert to show the impressive capacity of the vehicle.

Ever since coming out of stealth mode with their electric vehicles, Rivian made it clear that they are targeting people who get the most out of their trucks — people who like to go on adventures.

They are determined to demonstrate that electric pickup trucks will be just as capable as fossil fuel-powered trucks and more.

We already reported about some robust testing being done to prototypes, including traveling from Ushuaia, Argentina to Los Angeles, US last year.

Now Rivian is getting closer to production, and the R1T is undergoing some pretty intense testing in Arizona.

The startup released a really impressive video of the electric pickup truck prototype in the desert today:

Rivian wrote about the R1T prototype and the test in the Arizona desert:

“Last weekend, we grabbed our cameras and chased a few engineers around the desert as they put the R1T through its paces. Rock crawling. Off-roading. On-track. Enjoy. Test vehicle shown in camouflage (no, we didn’t change our headlights!). Vehicle testing was conducted on a closed course and in areas designed and maintained for this type of driving. Please be responsible out there.”

The R1T is offered in several different configurations, but the higher-end one includes Rivian’s quad-motor powertrain with a torque vectoring system, which offers some impressive performance off-road, as you can see in the video.

As we reported last month, Rivian has delayed the R1T and R1S to next year due to the pandemic slowing down work at their factory in Illinois.

Based on the specs released at the launch in 2018, the R1T is equipped with 4 electric motors, each a 147 kW power capacity at the wheel, while the total power output can be configured to different levels from 300 kW to 562 kW (input to gearbox).

The different power levels match different choices of battery packs, which are another impressive feature since they have the highest capacity of any other passenger electric vehicle out there: 105 kWh, 135 kWh, and 180 kWh.

Rivian says that it will translate to “230+ miles, 300+ miles, and 400+ miles” of range on a full charge.

They’re talking about a charge rate of up to 160 kW at fast-charging stations and an 11-kW onboard charger for level 2 charging.

It has a towing capacity with a trailer weight rating of 5,000 kg – that’s 11,000 lbs.

Rivian announced that the vehicle will start at $69,000 before incentives, but after Tesla announced the Cybertruck with similar specs for much cheaper, the company said it will lower its price.