{"id":74739,"date":"2024-07-23T17:52:20","date_gmt":"2024-07-23T21:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=74739"},"modified":"2024-07-23T17:52:20","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T21:52:20","slug":"rivian-ceo-spills-tea-why-ford-mercedes-tie-ups-fell-through","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=74739","title":{"rendered":"Rivian CEO spills the tea on why Ford, Mercedes tie-ups fell through"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\"Rivian-tie-ups\"<\/figure>\n

It wasn\u2019t too long ago that Rivian<\/a> and Ford were expected to build EVs together. Then, Rivian and Mercedes-Benz announced plans to produce electric vans. Although both fell through long ago, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe recently spilled the tea on why the tie-ups really failed.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The first partnership began after Ford invested $500 million<\/a> in Rivian in 2019. Ford said it would use Rivian\u2019s platform to develop its own branded EVs, including under Lincoln. <\/p>\n

Scaringe said at the time Rivian was excited to \u201cuse our technology and to get more electric vehicles on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

In April 2020, Ford said it was moving away from the Rivian partnership to focus on its own EV platform. A memo to employees stated, \u201cWe determined that it would be better to pivot from the Rivian skateboard platform and focus our development efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the end of 2022, Ford sold off<\/a> most of its stake in Rivian. Meanwhile, Rivian and Mercedes-Benz signed a deal<\/a> to build electric vans in 2020 using platforms from each automaker.<\/p>\n

That partnership ended after only three months as Rivian decided to focus on its own growth. Although Rivian revealed general statements as to why the tie-ups fell through, Scaringe spilled the tea during a recent interview<\/a> with The Verge<\/em>, revealing the real reason.<\/p>\n

\"Rivian-tie-ups\"
Rivian commercial electric van (left), R1S (middle), and R1T (left) (Source: Rivian)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here\u2019s why the Rivian EV tie-ups really fell through<\/h2>\n

After Volkswagen announced it would invest up to $5 billion<\/a> into Rivian last month, Scaringe was asked why this partnership is different.<\/p>\n

Rivian\u2019s CEO responded: \u201cWe\u2019ve looked at the idea of sharing our vehicle platform through a variety of lenses. We looked at vehicle platform sharing with Ford, vehicle platform sharing with Mercedes, both very publicly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rivian-tie-ups\"
Rivian R1T (left) and R1S (right) electric vehicles (Source: Rivian)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Scaringe added, \u201cWhat is, in every case, always the challenge is getting the network architectures of Rivian\u2019s platform and those other manufacturers that we\u2019ve talked to work together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a challenge in every possible way,\u201d Rivian\u2019s leader explained. \u201cIt\u2019s a challenge to get the top hat from a traditional company that\u2019s using lots and lots of supplier source ECUs to work with our platform \u2014 battery, drivetrain, chassis that has very few ECUs. It\u2019s a challenge to get those two very different architectures to run down the same manufacturing line.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rivian-tie-ups\"
Production at Rivian\u2019s Normal, IL plant (Source: Rivian)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, by far the biggest boundary, according to Scaringe, \u201cwas always network architecture.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on to explain that the VW partnership is focused on \u201cprecisely the thing that has always been the challenge.\u201d Although the deal is based on network architectures, it also makes platform sharing much easier.<\/p>\n

\"Rivian-R2-pre-orders\"
Rivian\u2019s next-gen R2, R3, and R3X (Source: Rivian)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Volkswagen hopes the Rivian tie-up can help revamp the brand<\/a> and attract buyers in the US. The automaker plans to double its US market share to around 10% by 2030.<\/p>\n

\n

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.<\/em> More.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It wasn\u2019t too long ago that Rivian and Ford were expected to build EVs together. Then, Rivian and Mercedes-Benz announced plans to produce electric vans. Although both fell through long ago, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe recently spilled the tea on why the tie-ups really failed. The first partnership began after Ford invested $500 million in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-cars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}