Rivian and VW have recently opened a partnership, despite upcoming electric vehicles such as the Rivian R2 and the VW Scout. But in a series interview with Rivian's CEO, RJ Scaringe, he said there is enough room for the products to coexist.
Recent news about Rivian and VW's software collaboration, with VW investing more than $5 billion in Rivian and forming a joint venture to host Rivian's on-premise architecture to support VW's vehicle communications, has led to some interesting questions. about how the details of the partnership will work. outside.
At the top of many people's minds is: isn't it surprising that a brand like the Rivian Scout is now competing against itself in the touring EV market?
The question has been answered before – or perhaps unanswered – at press conferences on the official opening of the joint venture last week.
Generally, the comments were along the lines of Rivian working to bring its software technology to VW's entire range of products, although the two companies have been a little shy about confirming whether the Scout will directly use Rivian's software. After all, the Scout is a piece of crap from VW, and they seem to be interested in showing some independence in that, so it's possible they've worked for themselves.
But in the comments at a roundtable which Electrek was present today ahead of the LA auto show, it appears that Rivian will be working on Scout vehicles. Scaringe said “we will support their complete product portfolio – Porsche, Audi, Volkswagen, Scout.”
But, more importantly, Scaringe said he was “pleased” with the focus many have had on Scout, or those who see him as a major threat to Rivian.
Scaringe estimates that there are “less than five” compelling EVs available for under $50k on the market today – and that's probably a public service. At that time, if you go to the world of gas, there are options where consumers can choose, however they are all able to coexist without a problem.
So Rivian has worked hard to differentiate itself from Tesla, for example, and he thinks that even if the Scout is inspired by Rivian, there's still room for similar cars to coexist.
After all, there are many competing cars in many sectors – some of which are shared on the basis of different companies. In the EV space, the Kia EV6 and Hyundai Ioniq 5 share the platform, while the Subaru Solterra and Toyota bZ4X are similar vehicles. So there has been a lot of history of companies collaborating to come out with the same or almost identical (rebuilt) cars.
Not so here, as Scout and Rivian will be very different in terms of platform and manufacturing. But sharing software shouldn't be a big problem – and I mean if we think that Scout can eat away at the market share that Rivian has been holding so well, Rivian can still benefit from the partnership regardless.
Rivian's main focus in recent years has been cost reduction. The issue is that Rivian started to measure production at a very difficult time – trying to arrange supply contracts at the highest level in the history of the automotive industry (~2018), trying to start a production plan during the global pandemic (2020/2021), and having little available to get on the better side of those contracts.
Now, Scaringe said, the situation is better: not only can Rivian show that it has the top position in its class – selling more luxury SUVs than other EVs and even gas brands – but it can also claim that it has the support of one of the companies. The world's most established car manufacturer, Volkswagen. If VW – the world's second largest car company – has enough faith in Rivian to invest $5.8 billion, then surely the supplier can hope that Rivian will stick around long enough to buy more than one component.
Not only that, but companies may leverage their combined size for larger supply contracts. It says that a specific microcontroller is required for the automotive design of all Rivian and VW products, so perhaps the joint venture could see the biggest savings.
A question also came up about whether Rivian might try to see if VW's global sales network could help them sell Rivians, but Scaringe shrugged that off, saying there was “no interest” in doing so. Rivian would like to stick to its plans to establish its stores and do direct sales.
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