CALIFORNIA: Volkswagen AG and Rivian Automotive Inc have ambitions of selling the electric vehicle (EV) technology they’re developing together to other carmakers in the future.
The two companies’ joint venture (JV), known as RV Tech, said it has made solid progress on delivering the EV electrical and software platform that Volkswagen needs to compete with Tesla and Chinese rivals.
The JV is focused on delivering models for Rivian and VW but is keeping communication open with third parties about the scalability of its platforms.
“We’re solving a problem for the larger automotive industry,” Wassym Bensaid, Rivian’s software chief and RV Tech co-chair, told journalists at an event in Palo Alto, California, on Wednesday.
“That could become an opportunity for others as well,” he said.
The platform is designed to be scalable across vehicle sizes and segments in Western markets.
The earning potential from licensing the technology “is a very different ballgame,” Bensaid said, “and a very different margin profile from a business standpoint than making cars.”
RV Tech also said it will begin testing the system in winter conditions on Audi, VW and Scout models starting in the first quarter of financial year 2026.
Volkswagen has licensed its technology to other carmakers in the past, with Ford Motor Co and Mahindra & Mahindra using the German carmaker’s first-generation platform for their own electric models.
Volkswagen is grappling with tariffs in the United States, shrinking deliveries in China and muted demand in Europe.
As part of its push to cut costs and bolster sales, it’s turning to Rivian for the kind of software and EV technology its initial battery-powered models were missing.
The automaker is investing as much as US$5.8bil into the alliance, making it one of chief executive officer Oliver Blume’s biggest strategic bets.
The partners formed a joint venture one year ago that brings together software developers and engineers from both companies. — Bloomberg
