hirsty
Two Seat Beach DSG
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Interesting article on VW investing $5B into Rivian to acquire immediate access to their 'single stack' software architecture:
Rivian founder tells investors why incoming shareholder Volkswagen needs his help to take on Tesla just as much as he needs the cash injection
I've been following Rivian since I saw Ewan & Charlie's "Long Way Up" where they used a pre-prod pickup as a support vehicle to their own electric motorcycles (in-turn supported, though mostly out of shot, by a diesel Sprinter ...) and their subsequent contract with Amazon for 100,000 delivery trucks. Many retail investors have since been burned whilst looking for "the next Tesla", and things were looking shaky as the electric start-ups struggle to scale-up for the efficiencies of the old giants - Rivian have been burning cash at a considerable rate & lose big money on every vehicle for now at least. Demand growth has stalled, new entrants etc, have seen massive 'valuation adjustments'.
On the plus side, the new range of very good looking smaller EVs coming & a launch in Europe planned ...
The above article focuses on the flip-side, of how hard it is for the traditional manufacturers to rejig for a ground-up new EV - particularly around software - and no doubt there'll be some difficult discussions happening in-house at VW right now as they've been pouring money into a hole themselves with little to show for it.
Rivian founder tells investors why incoming shareholder Volkswagen needs his help to take on Tesla just as much as he needs the cash injection
I've been following Rivian since I saw Ewan & Charlie's "Long Way Up" where they used a pre-prod pickup as a support vehicle to their own electric motorcycles (in-turn supported, though mostly out of shot, by a diesel Sprinter ...) and their subsequent contract with Amazon for 100,000 delivery trucks. Many retail investors have since been burned whilst looking for "the next Tesla", and things were looking shaky as the electric start-ups struggle to scale-up for the efficiencies of the old giants - Rivian have been burning cash at a considerable rate & lose big money on every vehicle for now at least. Demand growth has stalled, new entrants etc, have seen massive 'valuation adjustments'.
On the plus side, the new range of very good looking smaller EVs coming & a launch in Europe planned ...
The above article focuses on the flip-side, of how hard it is for the traditional manufacturers to rejig for a ground-up new EV - particularly around software - and no doubt there'll be some difficult discussions happening in-house at VW right now as they've been pouring money into a hole themselves with little to show for it.
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