? *BREAKING* Rivian & VW Announce Joint Venture -- VW Investing $1B in Rivian and another $4B to form JV for next gen EVs

[waitingonanr1s]

Assuming the aftermarket gains hold, I'll be in the black on my RIVN positions tomorrow. I thought about buying more this morning, but happy to have some very positive news! Excited to see what the future brings!

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[Gen(R3)Xer]

So should we assume this means Rivian will provide the platform for their Scout brand?

That’s exactly what I was thinking. ?

 

[Davethadog]

Assuming the aftermarket gains hold, I'll be in the black on my RIVN positions tomorrow. I thought about buying more this morning, but happy to have some very positive news! Excited to see what the future brings!

I suspect q2 earnings will drag it down a bit.

 

[waitingonanr1s]

I suspect q2 earnings will drag it down a bit.

I wouldn't be surprised - maybe another buying opportunity. I'm in it for the long haul anyways. I'm just excited for the better trajectory and clearer path towards R2 production.

 

[windblowlc]

Maybe good news. Lots of JVs end up just being a tophat engineered for a platform, like the Honda Prologue and Acura MDX sharing the ultium platform with the Blazer and Lyriq. Really depends on how much producing JV vehicles affects their cashflow and if it impedes their ability to produce their own vehicles.

You mean ZDX

 

[Goose]

I wonder if this join venture will see the Scout brand being the lower trim level R1 platform. Scout is on record “calling shots” (for lack of better term) at Rivian for being too expensive.

 

[windblowlc]

When I first glanced at this, I thought RJ was announcing tennis lessons with Roger Federer...

I was thinking of the possibility that this JV would use the Gen 2 Quad R1T to trailer both the R2 and the 911 to drag race the CT. With RJ sitting inside the R2 and Oliver Blume in the 911, both mouths wide ? like this.

 

[Sgt Beavis]

Assuming the aftermarket gains hold, I'll be in the black on my RIVN positions tomorrow. I thought about buying more this morning, but happy to have some very positive news! Excited to see what the future brings!

Yea, it’s going to open really high but fall back with the profit taking. That said, now I’m kicking myself for not buying more when it was at the 52week low.

I suspect q2 earnings will drag it down a bit.

Yup. automated trading is definitely going to bring it down. However, seeing how RJ is successfully navigating the companies woes, I think any downward motion will be somewhat short lived. The 3rd quarter financials are going to be a key moment for the company’s future.

 

[MidnightRivian]

Brick by brick we build this company.

Major shoutout to the employees, early adopters and shareholders.

Also thanks to all the shorts for $10 - $12 Rivian shares.

Let’s continue to work on higher lows and then eventually higher highs for our stock price as we get to R2 rollout.

 

[Zoidz]

Whole lot of dreamers in here who are going to be disappointed. Don't hold your breath on this being anything other than exactly what was announced.

I understand what you are saying and agree to an extent. Certainly in the first several years, they should be laser focused on the software/architecture JV effort. To expect that the Scout will be built by Rivian, or in a Rivian factory or on a Rivian platform in the next few years is probably not realistic.

But the official announcement does leave a lot of room for things like that to happen in the longer term. It's sort of like they are saying "If we still love each other after the honeymoon is over, many things are possible in the future".

"In addition to the $5 billion of capital to Rivian, we anticipate incremental benefits through material cost savings, operating expense efficiencies, and future revenue opportunities associated with the joint venture."

 

[Autolycus]

I understand what you are saying and agree to an extent. Certainly in the first several years, they should be laser focused on the software/architecture JV effort. To expect that the Scout will be built by Rivian, or in a Rivian factory or on a Rivian platform in the next few years is probably not realistic.

But the official announcement does leave a lot of room for things like that to happen in the longer term. It's sort of like they are saying "If we still love each other after the honeymoon is over, many things are possible in the future".

"In addition to the $5 billion of capital to Rivian, we anticipate incremental benefits through material cost savings, operating expense efficiencies, and future revenue opportunities associated with the joint venture."

I read "future revenue opportunities associated with the joint venture" to most likely mean things like subscription services tied to the software or licensing parts of the tech to 3rd parties beyond Rivian and VW Group.

The material cost savings and operating expense efficiencies are fairly obvious. They'll have far more leverage with suppliers and better internal economies of scale now.

 

[Florida Panhandler]

I would imagine there is going to be a VW /Rivian announcement regarding Service on Rivians available at VW dealers when R2 starts shipping. The mass market Rivian is going after with R2 and R3 would mean swamping current Rivian Service Centers and much longer wait times than even current levels. Rivian’s new cash infusion announcement would be better spent on factory and production rather than building out Service. Partnering with VW further into Service will mean much greater footprint and Internatonal presence with much greater initial impact.

A complete VW buyout is just fantasy at this point but would make sense in a branding strategy with Rivian being VAG’s Land Rover and Lancia Integrale. VW Scout brand would be more downmarket Bronco or Wrangler.

 

[Zoidz]

I'm waiting for pontification from King Musk regarding this announcement. I don't see how he could resist chiming in....

 

[Chrisy]

Not at all what I was thinking here. But VW did have major software issues with their ID vehicle launch. Probably don't want a repeat of that on the Scout program.

Exactly what came to my mind when reading the news.
The VW software stack is horrible since its birth and after all the years of trying VW finally admits its loss? Buying Rivian's full SW stack justifies most of the $5bln investment.

Note: Rivian's SW stack is fantastic minus the ADAS part which IS the most important in the recent years. But we are comparing against VW software so there is that

Also, Rivian SW stack is second to Tesla but the difference is that RJ leads an open company that allows such "alliances" to be made. (I also am very unoptimistic about the JV part -personal automotive JV experience- but that is a topic of its own)

 

[Autolycus]

Doubtful. This probably means less buttons for VW since they will be using Rivians software.

Maybe. They've already got several physical buttons in the R1s (e.g. stalks, multi-function wheels and buttons on the steering wheel, window and door buttons, etc.). Adding a few more at VW's request would be extremely doable.

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