Volkswagen to Invest $5 Billion in Rivian Automotive

TapTechNews June 26th news, in the early hours of this morning Beijing time, the German automotive giant Volkswagen Group announced plans to invest 5 billion US dollars (TapTechNews note: currently about 36.355 billion Chinese yuan) in the American electric vehicle startup Rivian Automotive, and the two sides will jointly establish a joint venture.

Volkswagen said in a statement that it will immediately invest 1 billion US dollars (currently about 7.271 billion Chinese yuan) in Rivian and will add an additional 4 billion US dollars (currently about 29.084 billion Chinese yuan) in the future. The new joint venture will be 'equally controlled and owned' by both parties and is committed to developing the next-generation pure electric vehicles and vehicle software.

After this news was released, Rivian's stock price in the US stock market once soared by more than 50% after hours. It is understood that the joint venture will build a 'oftware-defined vehicle' technology platform based on Rivian's software and electrical architecture, and the two companies will use this platform to produce their respective products.

Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume said that after meeting at the Porsche Customer Center and bonding over their love for cars, the cooperation between the two sides could come to fruition. Any brand under Volkswagen, including Audi and Porsche, can use the new platform and technology.

Rivian's founder and CEO R.J. Scaringe said that the funds provided by Volkswagen will help Rivian launch a medium-sized SUV named R2, with a price of about 45,000 US dollars (currently about 327,000 Chinese yuan) and complete the construction of the Georgia factory. Rivian stopped the construction of the Georgia factory in March to save more than 2 billion US dollars in funds.