- Rivian on Wednesday said it received the next $1 billion from its joint venture with the Volkswagen Group.
- The VW Group gets access to Rivian’s electrical and software architectures through the deal, while Rivian gets a big pile of cash.
- Rivian also said it delivered 10,661 vehicles during the latest quarter, a 23% drop year-over-year.
Rivian received another $1 billion from the Volkswagen Group on June 30, the electric vehicle startup announced on Wednesday. Last quarter, Rivian hit a profitability milestone laid out in the two companies’ partnership agreement. Now, the funds have actually changed hands through a share sale to the German automaker.
That payment capped off a poor quarter for Rivian’s vehicle sales. On Wednesday, Rivian said it delivered 10,661 vehicles in Q2, 23% fewer than it sold during the same period in 2024. Rivian said the changeover to its 2026-model-year trucks and SUVs stunted production at its Normal, Illinois, manufacturing plant.
But the company has also faced a demand problem for its rugged R1S SUV and R1T pickup truck. The vehicles are charming, capable and packed with thoughtful software and features, but they may just be too pricey to be volume sellers.
The California-based firm’s annual deliveries remained essentially flat in 2024, coming in at 51,579 units after a production snag slowed things down in the last quarter. This year, it aims to deliver far fewer: between 40,000 and 46,000 vehicles. It lowered its guidance this year, citing President Donald Trump’s tariffs on car parts and materials.
Why Rivian Teamed Up With Volkswagen
Rivian’s future growth rests on its next act, the $45,000 R2 crossover. Rivian aims to put that in production in 2026 as its first mass-market vehicle, one that can deliver real economies of scale. The Volkswagen deal is crucial to that mission, seeing as Rivian has spent billions of dollars getting to this point and has yet to turn a net profit.
The first VW EV to use Rivian’s underlying technology will be the small, affordable ID.Every1.
Photo by: Volkswagen
Volkswagen and Rivian struck an agreement last year that would inject $5.8 billion into the fledgling startup. In exchange, Volkswagen—which also owns Porsche, Audi, Bentley and a slew of other brands—would get access to Rivian’s underlying electrical architectures. This is essentially the “brain” of the vehicle that allows it to be deeply updatable over time with rich software-enabled features.
VW has struggled to develop such capabilities in-house. The R2’s technology will underpin all future EV projects at Volkswagen, a Rivian executive said recently, starting with Volkswagen’s upcoming entry-level car.
Rivian says the VW funding should give it enough runway to ramp up production of the R2 and a subsequent, smaller model, the R3.
Contact the author: Tim.Levin@InsideEVs.com.