- VW’s taking a bigger stake in Rivian, now as much as $5.8 billion
- Rivian and VW’s three way partnership has formally been created
- The Rivian R2 in 2026 and a Volkswagen in 2027 would be the first automobiles to function the brand new joint-venture electrical structure
The Volkswagen Group on Tuesday introduced that it will up its funding in Rivian as the 2 corporations formally launched their beforehand introduced Rivian and VW Group Know-how three way partnership.
The three way partnership was introduced in June with an preliminary funding of $5 billion from the VW Group over a interval of years in trade for entry to Rivian’s electrical structure and software program growth experience.
On Tuesday, the VW Group and Rivian introduced that the funding can be elevated to $5.8 billion. That is the results of VW pulling forward some future capital and altering the unique deal construction, the businesses stated.
Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe (left) and Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume
Below the up to date phrases of the deal, $1.3 billion is about to be spent on software program growth, an additional $3.5 billion can be spent by the VW Group to buy shares of Rivian, and the remaining $1 billion is earmarked for a possible mortgage by VW to Rivian.
The three way partnership, which is predicted to begin operations Nov. 13, will concentrate on creating and provide electrical structure and software program methods to each corporations, with options like community {hardware} and software program stacks that allow automobiles to be up to date over the air for his or her full life cycle talked about throughout an investor briefing.
On the similar briefing, the 2 corporations confirmed that the primary automobile to make use of these collectively developed methods would be the Rivian R2 crossover due in 2026. The extra funding from VW could be the distinction in getting that lower-priced mannequin throughout the road, in addition to funding additional growth of the hatchback-like R3 and a number of further fashions Rivian has teased.
Rivian and Volkswagen Group electrical structure and software program stack
The VW Group stated that some Volkswagen-brand fashions will possible be the primary of its automobiles to make use of the brand new methods in 2027, adopted by automobiles from Audi and the brand new Scout model. VW Group CEO Oliver Blume stated some sports activities vehicles may additionally use the methods, with out offering additional particulars.
The three way partnership will initially be primarily based in Silicon Valley and make use of round 1,000 engineers. Three further websites within the U.S. and Europe are deliberate for the close to future.
Each corporations famous that they had been open to further collaboration in different areas equivalent to batteries, complete automobile platforms, and joint manufacturing, however stated that will be exterior the scope of the present three way partnership. It additionally seems Rivian will not be part of growth of the VW Group’s Scalable Programs Platform (SSP) for next-generation EVs which, based on a report printed in July, is being delayed by software program points.
