Felix Holtermann’s Post

If you want to know what made Rivian great, just look at the picture below. It provides an overview of electronic control units (ECUs) in Rivian vehicles – and shows how the start-up has been able to significantly reduce the number of expensive on-board computers in recent years. This saves costs, increases updateability and brings new features to the cars that Volkswagen Group urgently needs as well. Key facts: 🚘 On Tuesday, VW and Rivian presented the new CEOs of their joint venture that will develop a unified #software and #computer architecture for numerous car models: Wassym Bensaid and Carsten Helbing. I was at the secret Rivian garage in Palo Alto on Monday, where the new partnership was sealed. 🚘 VW will install Rivian computers and software in its vehicles, the first of which will be available in 2027. The new joint venture will develop these products together and also #license the new architecture to other manufacturers. 🚘 The new entity, in which the two companies will each hold a 50% stake, is called "Rivian Volkswagen Group Technologies" (#RVGT). Its launch was announced in June, and the necessary contracts are now ready to be signed. The joint venture is expected to have around 1,000 employees, the vast majority of whom will come from Rivian. In corporate circles, the talk is of a 9-to-1 split. 🚘 The German-American partnership has become more expensive than expected: instead of the 5 billion dollars originally announced, VW is now setting aside 5.8 billion dollars for the cooperation with Rivian. VW CEO #OliverBlume explained in a call that more will be invested. "Today's launch of the joint venture shows the potential that we want to exploit together in the coming years," said Blume. Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe added that the deal was "an important step forward in driving the global transition to electric mobility." Link to full Handelsblatt story with Lazar Backovic in the comments.