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The U.S. EV newcomer Rivian intends to companion with the oldest automaker on the earth to kind a three way partnership round electrical vans—and producing them for Europe.
Within the enterprise, introduced this morning, the 2 corporations plan to share prices across the manufacturing of “bespoke massive electrical vans” for each Mercedes-Benz and Rivian.
The three way partnership would additionally, “in a couple of years,” function a manufacturing unit for Rivian and Mercedes-Benz Vans, “leveraging an current Mercedes-Benz web site in Central/Japanese Europe.”
2020 Mercedes-Benz EQV
There it could make two electrical vans for the European market. One shall be primarily based on Mercedes’ VAN.EA electrical structure, whereas the opposite shall be primarily based on the second technology of Rivian’s Gentle Van platform.
The brand new entity won’t be restricted to electrical vans, the announcement seems to counsel, because it says that “additional choices for elevated synergies from the three way partnership may also be explored.” Which may probably embrace joint improvement, however given the separate platforms, it would not look like a part of the preliminary settlement.
The businesses emphasised price efficiencies and fast scaling are the targets of the partnership. Working collectively will “assist make the vans extra inexpensive for business prospects pushed by the price of possession,” the press launch mentioned.
The 2 corporations cautioned that the enterprise is topic to ultimate agreements and regulatory clearances, and extra particulars in regards to the enterprise–together with a reputation—are all forthcoming.
Rivian Amazon electrical supply truck
Rivian has a standing order of as much as 100,000 electrical vans from Amazon, and it’s producing them in Illinois. It has mentioned it should quickly increase availability to business prospects past Amazon.
For Rivian, this will likely sign a change in legacy-automaker dance companions. Ford has been an investor in Rivian, and as a part of a strategic partnership between the 2 corporations in 2019 they aimed to supply a Rivian-based Lincoln electrical SUV primarily based on the platform that underpins the R1T and R1S. That mannequin, however not the partnership, was canceled in 2020, whereas plans had been off on co-developed EVs in 2021, as Ford centered on scaling them up internally.
Rivian is in a really totally different monetary place than one other U.S. EV firm, Tesla, when it partnered with Mercedes-Benz on a number of merchandise together with powertrain improvement for the previous B-Class Electrical. The German automaker as soon as owned almost a tenth of the California automaker. Tesla CEO Elon Musk at one level mentioned that Mercedes guardian Daimler saved Tesla, because it struggled forward of its IPO.
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