Volkswagen and Rivian confirm joint venture. VW to invest about 5.8 bn dollars

As we wrote in this post, published back in June, this year, Volkswagen and Rivian launch their joint venture dealing with the development and production of software-based vehicles. The JV will be known as Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies, and is based on a total deal size of up to $5.8 billion. It’s about 800 million dollars more than initially announced by Volkswagen to invest in a new automotive reality. The latter will be mainly focused on passenger cars, with the possibility to be extended to light commercial vehicles.

Something more about the Volkswagen and Rivian JV

More into details, the joint venture will be headed by Wassym Bensaid (Rivian) and Carsten Helbing (Volkswagen Group). Developers and software engineers from both companies will join the joint venture. Teams will be based in Palo Alto, California initially, and three other sites are in development in North America and Europe. As stated by the two companies, the goal is to be able to offer customers the best technological solution as early as possible.

“Today’s launch of the joint venture demonstrates the potential we want to leverage together in the coming years. We have a clear plan to offer our customers the best products and digital experiences at attractive prices through state-of-the-art development processes, innovative technological approaches, and a competitive cost base driven by synergies”, stated Volkswagen CEO, Oliver Blume.

RJ Scaringe, Founder and CEO of Rivian, added: “Today’s finalization of our joint venture with Volkswagen Group marks an important step forward in helping transition the world to electric vehicles. We’re thrilled to see our technology being integrated in vehicles outside of Rivian, and we’re excited for the future. Rivian will continue to stay focused on creating best in class products and services that benefit our customers, helping to drive EV adoption.”