Rivian R1T thrashed off-road (VIDEO)

Rivian R1T tested off-road

The Rivian R1T has been blasted around the desert to test out its off-road chops as it inches closer to production.

No matter what you say, the world’s car makers are moving towards electrification and away from internal combustion engines. For off-roaders, well, things aren’t so bleak with plenty of startups working on electrified off-roaders, like the Rivian R1T which is getting closer to production…and will be coming to Australia.

The Rivian R1T was first revealed in 2018 and has been teased on and off ever since. We’ve seen engineers working on it via remote control during the coronavirus lockdown but now it’s out and about testing its real-world adventure capability.

And the numbers are good, the R1T will be able to perform a tank turn (spinning 360-degrees) which may or may not be a good thing, and hit 96km/h in just 3.0 seconds which is supercar fast.

In this video, released a couple of days ago, Rivian said, “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.”

The R1T was expected to go into production later this year but coronavirus has pushed that out to about 2021 now. Meaning we probably won’t see it Down Under until 2022 at the earliest. Watch the video:

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Isaac Bober has been writing about cars and 4x4s for more than 20 years, has worked on some of the country's biggest motoring magazines (remember what they were?), and launched Practical Motoring. Now he's back, back again... to share dad jokes and much more.