General Motors was already in talks with Rivian, but it seems that agreement has fallen through and another American automotive giant, Ford, has secured a deal with the EV maker for use of its skateboard platform and the joint-development of a future Blue Oval EV. Ford will sink $500 million into Rivian as part of a much bigger investment in EVs, estimated at $11 billion that includes models like the all-electric Mustang-like crossover or the all-electric F-150 pickup.
Electrifying The Blue Oval
RJ Scaringe, the founder and CEO of Rivian, explains that “this strategic partnership marks another key milestone in our drive to accelerate the transition to sustainable mobility. Ford has a long-standing commitment to sustainability, with Bill Ford being one of the industry's earliest advocates, and we are excited to use our technology to get more electric vehicles on the road.”
We don’t know if said platform can be used to underpin lower vehicles as we’ve only seen it used on high-riding vehicles.
Rivian won’t give up its independence to Ford, but Ford’s president of Automotive, Joe Hinrichs will become the seventh member of Rivian’s board.
Back in February, Rivian announced a $700 million funds injection from Amazon, so it definitely looks like it’s on track to reveal its first production model in 2020. The R1T pickup is expected to debut next year with a power outputs between 400 and 750 horsepower and a range in excess of 400 miles (700 km).
These figures make it sound very competitive in the current market context and the R1T will definitely make life difficult for the upcoming Tesla pickup, slated to be revealed sometime this year with similar range claims. And we also expect General Motors to surprise us with a competitor for these EV pickups - Ford has already confirmed its commitment to making an all-electric truck (the F-150 EV), but now we know it may launch another one based on the Rivian platform.
Further Reading
Read our speculative review on the 2020 Ford Mach1.
Read our full review on the 2020 Rivian R1T Pickup.
Read our speculative review on the 2020 Tesla Pickup.