- In an announcement which sent Rivian shares skyrocketing, Rivian and Volkswagen have announced a joint venture which will allow both manufacturers to share software and EV architecture.
- These joint venture vehicles, from both brands, will be launched as early as 2025.
- Volkswagen will start with an initial investment of $1bn, with another $4bn invested further down the line.
VW and Rivian to share EV technology
The two companies have been working on making this venture possible in the background for a couple of months now, making sure that Rivian’s EV architecture and software is compatible with vehicles from the Volkswagen Group. Now that this stage has been confirmed, the partnership will initially lead to the Volkswagen Group using Rivian’s EV architecture and software platform, as VW hopes for its future models to become Software-Defined Vehicles (SDVs), in which the software becomes the heart of the car, as features such as autonomous driving come into the mix. The two companies hope that the combined expertise in different fields from each company, and the economies of scale associated with architecture sharing, will lead to even lower electric vehicle costs in the future.
For Volkswagen in particular, this is not the first EV joint venture it has subscribed to. Its partnership with Ford is already delivering EVs, with the Ford Explorer, based on the same MEB architecture as the Volkswagen ID.4, launching in Europe. Meanwhile, in China, VW has launched a platform and software partnership with XPENG, which will result in two VW-branded EVs being launched in the country.
RJ Scaringe, Founder and CEO of Rivian, commented:
“We’re very excited to be partnering with Volkswagen Group. Since the earliest days of Rivian, we have been focused on developing highly differentiated technology, and it’s exciting that one of the world’s largest and most respected automotive companies has recognized this. Not only is this partnership expected to bring our software and associated zonal architecture to an even broader market through Volkswagen Group’s global reach, but this partnership also is expected to help secure our capital needs for substantial growth. Rivian was created to help the world to transition away from fossil fuels through compelling products and services, and this partnership is beautifully aligned with that mission.”
