Rivian, a Michigan-based EV startup, has benefited from two very important investments recently. After a contribution of USD $700m following fundraising led by Amazon this past February, Ford swooped in this past April to pour $500m into Rivian.
Rivian is preparing to launch two EVs and two Level-3 semi-autonomous vehicles optimized for ride-sharing next year. The planned rollout includes the R1T pickup truck and 7-seat R1S SUV shown at the last several major auto shows.
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Rivian has positioned its facilities to respect the specificities and historical advantages of the different US states: the head office, design and engineering, are located in Plymouth, Michigan, near the traditional automotive sector while its development center in San Jose, California taps into Silicon Valley’s research on self-driving technology and data. The company’s battery research and development center is in Irvine, California. The R1T and R1S will be produced at the Normal, Illinois plant Rivian bought from Mitsubishi in 2017.
The deal with Ford provides for the delivery by Rivian of the unique battery architecture included in the Skateboard platform that Ford will use for its own EV models, Ford emphasizing that the platform that will be common to them, was also quite “flexible” to allow to respect the specificities of both brands and there’s no doubt that with its strong design, Rivian vehicles will remain recognizable. As part of the deal, Rivian could, for its part, take advantage of the logistics of Ford.
