Rivian Chief Executive RJ Scaringe finally revealed the factors that pushed its planned partnerships with legacy automakers Ford and Mercedes-Benz to fall through.
Rivian CEO blames “network architectures” for failed partnerships
In a recent interview with The Verge, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe finally elaborated on the reasons why the company’s previous partnership plans with Ford and Mercedes-Benz did not push through.
According to the Rivian boss, the primary reason was the complexity of making the Rivian platform’s network architectures compatible with other OEMs like Ford and Mercedes.
“We’ve 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. What is, in every case, always the challenge is getting the network architectures of Rivian’s platform and those other manufacturers that we’ve talked to work together.”
Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe
He further emphasized that these OEMs utilize multiple supplier source ECUs, making it challenging for them to function with Rivian’s technology, which only uses a few.
“It’s a challenge in every possible way. It’s a challenge to get the top hat from a traditional company that’s using lots and lots of supplier source ECUs to work with our platform — battery, drivetrain, chassis that has very few ECUs. It’s a challenge to get those two very different architectures to run down the same manufacturing line.”
Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe
Brief background
Rivian-Ford
In hindsight, Ford invested a whopping $500 million in Rivian in 2019 to gain access to the latter’s electric vehicle platform for the development of its own products.
However, Ford withdrew from this collaboration in April 2020 as it gained interest in developing its own platform.
“We determined that it would be better to pivot from the Rivian skateboard platform and focus our development efforts.”
Ford indicated in a memo to employees at the time
Ford then sold off the majority of its stake in the American electric vehicle startup by the end of 2022.
Rivian-Mercedes
In 2020, Rivian and Mercedes-Benz agreed to co-develop electric vans using their respective underpinnings.
The two companies primarily aimed at the time to “set the standard in sustainable and all-electric transportation.”
However, Rivian decided to ditch the partnership just after three months as it intended to focus on its own EV growth.
Rivian-VW alliance
On June 25, 2024, Volkswagen Group announced that it would invest up to $5 billion in Rivian. The two companies explore the potential to establish a new joint venture for “industry-leading” software development for electric vehicles.
Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe asserted in a recent interview that the partnership with Volkswagen Group is different from the failed ones with Ford and Mercedes-Benz as it focuses on “precisely the thing that has always been the challenge.”
Volkswagen Group expects its partnership with Rivian to revitalize the iconic brand in the electric vehicle era by attracting customers’ interest in the US. VW aims to increase its market share in Tesla’s home turf by twofold to about 10% by 2030.
Rivian CEO Scaringe’s recent statements demonstrate the company’s commitment to in-house tech development, potentially enabling the brand to further advance in the rapidly growing EV industry.
