By Abhirup Roy
Palo Alto, California (Reuters) – A joint company between the American manufacturer of electric trucks and SUVs Rivian and Volkswagen is in conversations with other automobile manufacturers about the supply of its software and electricity architecture, said a senior Rivian executive on Thursday.
The German manufacturer agreed in November to invest 5.8 billion dollars in the joint company, which will integrate advanced electrical infrastructure and Rivian software technology for future electric vehicles of both companies.
While a joint business will give Rivian greater volumes to negotiate better agreements with suppliers and reduce costs, something that is considered critical in the midst of a deceleration in the demand for electric vehicles, Volkswagen and potentially other traditional car manufacturers will obtain rapid access and easy for technology and software for those who have fought to build. years.
“I would say that many other original team manufacturers are knocking on our door,” Rivian software director Wassym Bensaid said in an interview, referring to original equipment manufacturers, a phrase used to describe vehicle manufacturers.
Bensaid, who is also executive co -director of the joint company, refused to provide names of interested cars manufacturers and details about which stage were conversations.
Rivian’s architecture requires less electronic control units and much less wiring, which reduces the weight of the vehicle and simplifies manufacturing. Technology is essential to make cars with software that could be updated by air as a smartphone, what the industry calls “software defined vehicles”, an area in which established car manufacturers are still late.
“There is demand,” said Bensaid, added that the priority until 2027 was to launch the R2, the smallest and least expensive SUV of Rivian, and integrate technology into other Volkswagen brands. “Obviously, other original team manufacturers are talking to us and we are trying to discover how to support it in the future.”
“Any other OEM who wants to make a leap from the technological point of view, the joint company today becomes one of the key partners with which this collaboration can do,” he said.
It is likely that the company will become the chosen platform in the western world, apart from Tesla, said Canaccord Genuity analysts in a note. The joint company also helps relieve “an important part of capital concern” of Rivian, analysts said.
(Abhirup Roy report in Palo Alto, California, and Arsheeya Bajwa in Bengaluru; edited by Peter Henderson and Jamie Freed)