VW will invest up to $5 billion in Rivian as part of new EV joint venture
VW will invest up to $5 billion in Rivian as part of new EV joint venture
A big cash infusion for the EV startup.
Rivian’s CEO looks like if Steve O was sober in the early 2000’s
He seems like a cool dude tho, at least going off the interviews of him I've seen.
90% sure I saw this guy at a Margaritaville in Palm Springs. Looked exactly like him, had a lanyard and had some sort of assistant walking with him.
Hey I drive by there every week for work. I fucken hate that intersection its on.
What does VW get out of this?
Volkswagens EV platform is a mess because the CEO responsible for the pivot to EV within VW, was only allowed to implement it if he stopped being the CEO. So the next guy half assed the 80B$ pivot to EV, leading to VW being one of the worst performers amongst EV producing OEMs.
So now they are on the market to buy whatever is needed to get them out of the hot mess they created themselves.
VW is good at making cars, but bad at software. They've had to delay the introduction of new models (Golf, ID.3) because of software issues. Rivian has sort of the opposite problem: their production lines sit still often because of problems in the supply chain.
Volkswagen has the expertise to solve Rivian's production and supplier problems, and the cash they will need to survive and develop some cheaper models (the EV market is stagnating right now for a lack of budget options, and Rivian only sells trucks and SUVs). And they're hoping Rivian software engineers can help them fix their software woes.
Greenwashing.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The joint venture will be co-owned by Rivian and VW Group, which oversees brands like Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini, and its flagship Volkswagen.
The new venture was announced in a post from Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe, who noted the investment will help the company bring its next generation R2 electric vehicle to market starting in 2026.
VW Group CEO Oliver Blume said all of the company’s brands could benefit from the partnership with Rivian, including potential competitor Scout Motors, which is planning to launch a new lineup of electric trucks in the US.
The plan was to use Rivian’s battery pack and electric motor setup in a Ford or Lincoln branded SUV.
Asked whether the deal would make Rivian the exclusive partner to VW and its brands, Scaringe declined to answer directly.
“In the context of the joint venture, we have certainly talked about the ability to work on other products or private programs outside of the Rivian or Volkswagen Group portfolio,” he said.
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Um wow!
I think this is fucking awesome. Complete win for all of us hoping for better and more affordable EVs.
Mixed feelings, I like VW but I don't really like Rivian.
I’m in the opposite camp. What are the reasons you don’t like Rivian? (I don’t like VW because we had not one, but two vehicles caught up in Dieselgate. They’re dead to me. Which is a shame because I really liked them.)
For what it's worth, all automakers had illegally high emissions (well apart from Tesla I guess). This is something I never see people bring up.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_emissions_scandal
VW wasn't even close to being the worst for it (surprisingly they were among the least bad). They were just the first to be tested, and their leadership owned up to breaking the law immediately, meaning news media could happily call them out without fear of a libel/slander case.
VW alone took the PR hit for an entire shady industry.
Rivian comes off as a tech bro startup that has talked a big game but produced poor results, they've been advertising autonomous self driving since like 2015 or earlier. After shipments started, so did layoffs.
VW has a long history of reliable manufacturing to high standards in Europe. They've had executives make claims that they would overtake Tesla as the world's largest electric car company by 2025. Obviously, VW has been lagging hard on EV and won't reach that goal, but if I had to pick a favorite car company it's between them and maybe JEEP or KIA.