Volkswagen reveals why it’s ploughing $5.8bn into Rivian

Volkswagen is pumping $5.8bn into Rivian because it thinks the US carmaker’s e-hardware is “the most advanced” in the world right now.

Last year the two firms announced a joint venture in which Rivian will work with VW to create ‘next-generation electrical architecture and best-in class software technology’ in exchange for many, many Benjamins flowing into the former’s war chest.

Asked about the partnership by TG, VW brand boss Thomas Schäfer says the tech will cover “the body systems, the drivetrains, the infotainment… all electronics in the vehicle”, with Porsche and Audi first in line to benefit, and new US brand Scout Motors on the list too.

Schäfer insists VW wasn’t looking for a Get Out of Jail Free card over its ropey infotainment efforts of recent years, claiming that the latest system rolled out on the ID.3, ID.4, ID.7 and others in the group is “perfect” and “state of the art”. Well, they have got temperature controls you can use in the dark now.

And note that there’s no platform sharing going on (like how Ford has spun the Explorer and Capri off VW’s MEB skateboard), so Rivians of the future – most pressingly the R2 and R3 – aren’t going to be VWs in disguise, or vice versa.

No, VW is more worried about the internal organs. “Our vehicles at the moment are multi control unit electronic architectures,” explains Schäfer. “Every part of the car – whether the seat or the window wiper – has [an] individual intelligent control unit that speaks all sorts of languages. So to keep it together in the vehicle is very complex.

“The future is a central unit. And you have sort of dumb units around that the central computer organises. So you have a much easier updatable architecture.

“We needed to anyway go in that direction, and we decided to do that in the joint venture together into a very functional, very competitive, state-of-the-art software architecture. We find that [Rivian] probably have the most advanced in the market.”

It’s similar to what BMW is doing with its imminent Neue Klasse generation of EVs: earlier this month it made big promises over improved handling and dynamics because the powertrain, brakes, regen and steering will all be marshalled by a single control unit, rather than lots all squabbling with each other.

TG put it to Schäfer that BMW has done all of that development in-house, without needing to raid the piggy bank. “Well, how big is BMW?” he replies. “We could also do stuff in-house. It's a question of ‘Can you do it at the right speed and cost?’ It's always a debate, is it right?

“Also the complexity in our group, it has to work for at least 10 brands. It's not simple. So we decided the best way to do it is this way.”

It’s a journalistic sin to end a news story with ‘time will tell’, but…