The U.S. EV newcomer Rivian intends to accomplice with the oldest automaker on the planet to kind a three way partnership round electrical vans—and producing them for Europe.
In the enterprise, introduced this morning, the 2 firms plan to share prices across the manufacturing of “bespoke large electric vans” for each Mercedes-Benz and Rivian.
The three way partnership would additionally, “in a few years,” function a manufacturing unit for Rivian and Mercedes-Benz Vans, “leveraging an existing Mercedes-Benz site in Central/Eastern Europe.”
2020 Mercedes-Benz EQV
There it could make two electrical vans for the European market. One will likely be primarily based on Mercedes’ VAN.EA electrical structure, whereas the opposite will likely be primarily based on the second technology of Rivian’s Light Van platform.
The new entity may not be restricted to electrical vans, the announcement seems to recommend, because it says that “further options for increased synergies from the joint venture will also be explored.” That may doubtlessly embrace joint growth, however given the separate platforms, it would not seem like a part of the preliminary settlement.
The firms emphasised value efficiencies and speedy scaling are the objectives of the partnership. Working collectively will “help make the vans more affordable for commercial customers driven by the cost of ownership,” the press launch stated.
The two firms cautioned that the enterprise is topic to remaining agreements and regulatory clearances, and extra particulars concerning 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 stated it’ll quickly broaden availability to industrial prospects past Amazon.
For Rivian, this will 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 firms 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 have 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 growth for the previous B-Class Electric. The German automaker as soon as owned almost a tenth of the California automaker. Tesla CEO Elon Musk at one level stated that Mercedes mother or father Daimler saved Tesla, because it struggled forward of its IPO.
Source: www.greencarreports.com