Game-changing investment? Why VW is spending big on electric car innovator Rivian | DW News

Volkswagen is investing $5 billion in the US electric vehicle maker Rivian to form a joint venture aimed at advancing both companies' electric vehicle technologies. This significant infusion of capital is expected to help Rivian develop more affordable and mass-market EVs while leveraging Volkswagen's extensive manufacturing expertise. However, this collaboration raises questions about market competition and long-term strategic goals as the companies navigate the rapidly evolving EV landscape. Daniel Winter speaks to Joe McCabe, CEO of AutoForecast Solutions, to find out more.

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[JoePolaris]

I think VW needs Rivian as badly as Rivian needs VW, perhaps more. The execution on software as mobility has been very challenging for VW. Better get running fast, BYD, Gelly, NIO are coming… holding one’s breath vs the Chinese competition won’t be sustainable. Large OEMs seems to be caught in too much internal political turmoil, Ford discovered this with the Lighting development, as a result they are changing the internal development motions to survive, Jim Farley’s latest interview was clear, it’s Tesla, BYD/Gelly and whoever will be nimble enough to be around in 20y from now, time to change is now.

[tibsyy]

It's no longer Tesla you have to win against.
It's BYD, Geely and Zeekr!

[JeremAl]

They’re 10years late. Aren’t they supposed to take on BYD?

[KJSvitko]

Sure seems like Rivian should be building all the delivery vans it can. There is a huge market for commercial vehicles.
Why are they not ramping up volumes of commercial vehicles. Amazon, FedEx, UPS, Walmart, Target and others all need delivery vehicles.
Slow rolling the production ramp leads to higher costs.

[PhillCurtis]

More content like this! Thanks DW I love your content

[parkependleton]

Before hearing this I've assumed that Rivian would go bankrupt in the short-term. This merger should breathe life into their company which sounds like a good thing.

[toyotaprius]

Focusing on Tesla is a big blind mistake, especially considering they wasted so much time and resources on that Cybertruck lemon.

Every automaker should take Chinese EVs more seriously

[flemlion]

Tesla is the Apple in the car space. Like not everyone likes iphones, not everyone likes Tesla. Some people do know what they prefer and don't need a company to tell them that they should only want what they sell.

[urbanstrencan]

This is one of the best investments that VW has made, they will get great EV platform and hopefully Rivian is getting VW service network here in Europe and bring R2T for EU❤❤❤

[Ianmundo]

if VW want to take on Tesla, they need to drop a lot of their old policies. Cars need to be high performance and long range. High spec by default, No to options lists. No to software locks

[Tom_Mroz]

4:30 Now please do Market Cap.

VW - $55b
Tesla - $772b
Rivan - $14, , 65b

[martinwhitney]

I would love to get a rivian R1T. ive been waiting for years

[mat]

Smaller, cheaper electric cars. Legacy auto makers made billions with the appetite of their customers to buy overpriced SUVs. I welcome the chinese scare so these companies wake up to competition.

[williamzabiski]

German machinery technology is always better than the rest

[francisdebriey]

Because VW didn't listen to its CEO Herbert Diess, now they are NOWHERE and have to find an alternative strategy to stay in the BEV market. When shareholders are 3rd age and grumpy, this is the result.

[JD-kkcl]

What a beautiful analysis on EV, Tesla especially!

[mrgustavoperez]

This VW transaction feels like MSFT buying Nokia to catch up to Apple.

[R.E.A.L.I.T.Y]

Too little too late and idiotic sacking & ignoring Herbert Diess. Tesla is 20yrs ahead. China battery & EV policy is 24yrs old. They invested $250B USD mastering material supply and refining chains and the battery & manufacturing tech.
The EU is asleep at the wheel on resource & material supply chains. They just ain’t gonna compete without $250B+ investment over 15yrs in EV manufacturing instead of playing debt merry go rounds via tax havens.

[billh]

VW is paying Rivian for their software because they are incapable of doing it themselves. What VW really needs to do is ask themselves why they can't do it. What is important to know is that all the EV software defined car tech ultimately came from Tesla, either directly with Rivian and Lucid, etc.being staffed by ex Tesla employees or from Chinese makers directly copping the tech. I would argue that if VW can't address the core reason why they couldn't do it themselves, they are doomed to be a follower.

[dukequack]

They’re spending big now because they realised Diess (and Elon) was right and they’re in the process of realising how badly they fumbled the bag. This ship has more than 100Billion in debt, they’re gonna crash and burn due to hubris.