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Rivian and Volkswagen Group have finalized a multibillion - dollar joint venture to develop software program , pave the elbow room to let the German machine titan leverage the EV startup ’s more technical chops in the hail class . Volkswagen will indue up to $ 5.8 billion by 2027 , about 16 % more than when the raft was firstannounced in June .
Volkswagen Group has already made an initial investment of $ 1 billion in the shape of a convertible note .
The novel joint venture — Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies — will formally give up off November 13 as an independent company . And , if successful , it could be a boon for both companies . Rivian drive a needed injectant of capital and the opportunity to radiate its business , while VW Group gains a next - genesis electrical architecture and software for electron volt that will help it better vie . Both party fence the joint venture will scale down developing cost and help surmount new engineering more quickly .
The company designed the joint venture as a 50 - 50 partnership with co - CEOs , who will account into both Rivian and Volkswagen Group . Rivian ’s head of software system , Wassym Bensaid , and Volkswagen Group ’s chief technological engineer , Carsten Helbing , will lead the joint venture . developer and software engine driver from both companies will fall in the joint venture , allot to Rivian and VW . The squad will be free-base initially in Palo Alto , California . Three other website are in exploitation in North America and Europe , the companies said Tuesday . VW , and more specifically its software arm Cariad , has scramble in recent years to deliver what some in the industry have nickname a“software - define vehicle . ” This slang manufacture term , sometimes abbreviate SDV , intend any car , motortruck , or SUV with capabilities that can be upgraded over time ( or even new functions added ) via package . carmaker reckon these software program - delineate vehicles as a fresh way to make money via in - car entertainment and services ; it ’s also seen essential for automakers direct to vie with Tesla . originally this year , Rivian started produce the next - generation of its R1 thyroxine pickup motortruck and R1S SUV , an ascent that make over the guts of its vehicle , admit a new electric computer architecture and compute platform . That new electrical architecture is seen internally as a key origination at Rivian and one that allows the company to wirelessly update computer software .
With the Rivian - VW joint venture steering software developing for the German automaker ’s next - generation of EVs , Cariad ’s future tense is uncertain . VW Group CEO Oliver Blume aver Tuesday that Cariad will continue to play a “ central role ” in its global software strategy at Volkswagen Group , adding the software arm will be responsible for the existing software weapons platform in today ’s fomite over the next decade . Cariad is also in bursting charge of software governance , which shroud autonomous drive , data direction , and swarm religious service .
Prior to the initial June announcement , Cariad had hire at least23 of Rivian ’s top employeesover the past several month to bolster its Silicon Valley outpost called the SDV Hub . The SDV hub is background zero for Cariad ’s next - generation software architecture live as “ software 2.0.”Now Rivian will contribute even more endowment toward the joint venture . “ Rivian will be contributing a significant portion of the squad , ” Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe said during a crush conference Tuesday afternoon .
The JV squad plans to use the existing Rivian electrical architecture and software applied science quite a little to turn on the launch of Rivian ’s R2 midsize SUV in the first half of 2026 and support the expect launching of the first exemplar from the Volkswagen Group as early on as 2027 , the companies said .
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Last calendar month at Disrupt 2024 , Bensaid described the joint venture as an opportunity for Rivian to bring its software package to multiple steel , including theVW spinoff Scout . He said each brand that use the joint venture ’s software will “ preserve to have their own identity , ” as well as “ their own features . ”
“ We ’re enabling challenger , ” Bensaid order at the time . Scout has since confirmed that its vehicles will be among the first to use the novel zonary architecture build by the Volkswagen Group - Rivian joint speculation .
