(Bloomberg/Monica Raymunt) — Volkswagen AG and Rivian Automotive Inc. have ambitions of promoting the electrical car know-how they’re creating collectively to different carmakers sooner or later.
The 2 firms’ three way partnership, referred to as RV Tech, mentioned it has made strong progress on delivering the EV electrical and software program platform that Volkswagen must compete with Tesla and Chinese language rivals. The JV is concentrated on delivering fashions for Rivian and VW however is retaining communication open with third events in regards to the scalability of its platforms.
“We’re fixing an issue for the bigger automotive business,” Wassym Bensaid, Rivian’s software program chief and RV Tech co-chair, informed journalists at an occasion in Palo Alto, California, on Wednesday. “That might turn out to be a chance” for others as effectively, he mentioned.
The platform is designed to be scalable throughout car sizes and segments in Western markets.
The incomes potential from licensing the know-how “is a really totally different ballgame,” Bensaid mentioned, “and a really totally different margin profile from a enterprise standpoint than making vehicles.”
RV Tech additionally mentioned it is going to start testing the system in winter circumstances on Audi, VW and Scout fashions beginning within the first quarter of 2026.
Volkswagen has licensed its know-how to different carmakers prior to now, with Ford Motor Co. and Mahindra & Mahindra utilizing the German carmaker’s first-generation platform for their very own electrical fashions.
Volkswagen is grappling with tariffs within the US, shrinking deliveries in China and muted demand in Europe. As a part of its push to chop prices and bolster gross sales, it’s turning to Rivian for the form of software program and EV know-how its preliminary battery-powered fashions have been lacking. The automaker is investing as a lot as $5.8 billion into the alliance, making it one in every of Chief Government Officer Oliver Blume’s greatest strategic bets.
The companions shaped a three way partnership one 12 months in the past that brings collectively software program builders and engineers from each firms. They’re working with Rivian’s centralized electronics structure with fewer computing items that’s meant to assist Volkswagen simplify growth and lower prices. For loss-making Rivian, the funding is a monetary lifeline as producers rethink methods in a slowing EV market.
Whereas the JV is prioritizing the ramp-up and supply of the underpinnings for electrical fashions, there are parallels that will permit the know-how for use for combustion engine vehicles as effectively, JV co-chair Carsten Helbing mentioned.
The primary automotive to get the brand new know-how will probably be Rivian’s R2 sport utility car, out early subsequent 12 months. VW’s compact EV, referred to as ID. EVERY1, anticipated to value round €20,000 (about $23,000), will comply with in 2027, with rugged autos from the Scout model due after that. Volkswagen has an identical partnership with Xpeng Inc. for the Chinese language market.
Volkswagen’s earlier efforts to develop software program in-house largely stumbled, first by holding up launches of its namesake model’s ID fashions, then by handicapping these autos’ gross sales due to buggy options. The group, which additionally consists of Audi and Porsche AG, has seen EV gross sales rise in Europe this 12 months after enhancing software program and updating fashions.
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