Rivian: The Time for a Better Future: EV-On-Energy Systems at the End of the Electric-Rotation Era

The money will undoubtedly come in handy. Like other EV-only companies, Rivian has been struggling through a period of cooling demand around electric vehicles. The company is selling more products, but it is losing more money. It has $7.9 billion of cash and cash equivalents, but it admits that it needs to make cuts if it wants to achieve stability. Rivian has already gone through a number of layoffs.

Scaringe said the partnership will bring Rivian’s new zonal architecture, available now through its refreshed second-generation R1 vehicles, as well as its software, to a “broader market.” Rivian recently became one of the few companies beyond Tesla to use a zonal architecture for its vehicles that rely on fewer electric control units than usual.

Meanwhile, VW has been going through its own struggles around EVs. The company’s plug in models are selling well, but its market share is decreasing in North America. And its software has been plagued by bugs and customer complaints.

It’s important to note that all of the affordable mass-market vehicles are different shapes. I know, we can’t trust the shapes! There are at least several small, medium, and large vehicles in the works for that category. That seems important.

A toss in the mix: what are the new Rivian-Swiss and R2 and R3 mystery vehicles?

I was distracted by Rivian announcing a $5 billion deal with Volkswagen to develop software and electric vehicles, but they planned an investor day event on June 27th.

First of all, Rivian’s shroud-covered vehicles look very similar to the ones Tesla revealed during its company shareholder meeting earlier this month, which raises the possibility that both are just using the same tools in Photoshop to create these images.

So to toss into the mix five — five! — new mystery vehicles is either a pretty bold strategy for the future or a desperate effort to stay relevant amid rising costs and cooling interest in electric vehicles. Either way, let’s take a look at these vehicles to see if we can make some guesses about what they are.

That does not appear to be a van shape. It is more truck-shaped, but it is InsideEVs editor-in-chief who is responsible. Patrick George makes a convincing argument that we should not read too much into the shapes. They could be stock images or just placeholders. If anything, Rivian could actively be trying to throw sleuths off the scent with these shapes. Liz Markman didn’t comment on the mystery vehicles.

In the next column, we can see two of the new models, the R2 and R3. The mystery vehicle is on top of the column. The electrical architecture of the three vehicles is called theMSP.