By Abhirup Roy
Palo Alto, California (Reuters) – A joint venture between the American manufacturer of electric pick -up and SUV Rivian and Volkswagen is in talks with other car manufacturers to provide their software and their electrical architecture, said a senior manager on Thursday Rivian.
The German car manufacturer agreed in November to invest $ 5.8 billion in the joint venture, which will integrate advanced electrical infrastructure and Rivian software technology for future electric vehicles of the two companies.
While a joint venture will give Rivian higher volumes to negotiate better agreements with suppliers and reduce costs, which is considered essential in a context of slowdown in the demand for electric vehicles, Volkswagen and potentially other manufacturers Traditional cars will have quick and easy access to technology and software for which they had trouble creating. years.
“I would say that many other equipment manufacturers strike at our door,” said Wassym Bensaid, software director at Rivian, in an interview, referring to original equipment manufacturers, an expression used to describe car manufacturers.
Bensaid, which is also co-deendent co-prescribed, refused to provide the names of interested car manufacturers and details on the progress of negotiations.
Rivian architecture requires fewer electronic control units and much less wiring, which reduces the weight of the vehicle and simplifies manufacturing. This technology is essential for the construction of cars with software that can be updated by radio link, such as a smartphone – which the industry calls “vehicles defined by software”, a field in which the established car manufacturers are always at Holds it.
“There is a request,” said Bensaid, adding that priority until 2027 was to deploy R2, the smaller and cheaper SUV from Rivian, and integrate this technology into other Volkswagen brands. “Obviously, other equipment manufacturers speak to us and we try to find out how to take care of this in the future.”
“For any other equipment supplier wishing to take a jump from a technological point of view, the joint venture becomes today one of the key partners with whom they can establish this collaboration,” he said.
The company is likely to become the platform of choice in the Western world, apart from Tesla, said Canaccord Genuity analysts in a note. The joint venture also helps to alleviate “a significant part of capital concerns” for Rivian, analysts said.
(Report by Abhirup Roy to Palo Alto, California, and Arsheeya Bajwa in Bengaluru; edited by Peter Henderson and Jamie Freed)
