Will Mercedes help Rivian’s EV vans get started again?
Mercedes and Rivian Automotive collaborate to jointly build electric vans in Europe. The details of the agreement
These are certainly not easy months for Rivian Automotive Inc., the startup of electric vans in which big players like Ford (which then sold part of its shares, contributing to the financial difficulties of this young brand) and above all Amazon , who saw in this innovative reality not only an opportunity to earn by diversifying its business, but also the ideal supplier to completely renew its fleet for e-commerce deliveries, acquiring green vehicles.
THE DISTURBANCE OF THE ELECTRIC VANS THAT AMAZON LIKES
Someone, also given the enthusiasm with which the Stock Exchange welcomed its debut, had already gone so far as to nickname Rivian "the new Tesla", but then Covid, the absence of chips, the surge in raw material costs led the startup to miss productivity targets one after the other, prompting one of its main investors, the American Ford, to slacken its presence in the capital.
Finally, earlier this year, the US van company EV also briefly halted work at its Normal, Illinois facility to make process corrections and improvements to increase production. It is therefore not surprising if, compared to the listing, Rivian shares are still below 65 percentage points by 2022.
WHAT IS THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN RIVIAN AND MERCEDES
For this reason, the news of the memorandum of understanding signed between Rivian and Mercedes-Benz AG to jointly build electric vans in Europe appears as a lifesaver. A move that can be a potential advantage for the German manufacturer who wants to push on electric mobility without fully incurring the costs and for a very young company that, as we have just mentioned, is struggling to grow.
In this last period, if you notice it, there are no similar collaborations between long-standing brands and young startups: after all, car manufacturers are increasingly trying to divide the cost of developing and producing electric vehicles, while they are forced to invest billions to retool factories and review their industrial strategies to cope with the growing hostility of Brussels and Washington towards old internal combustion engines and, at the same time, catch up with Tesla Inc. entire automotive supply chain.
According to a statement , the two companies will invest and operate a new assembly plant at an existing Mercedes plant in Central or Eastern Europe, which will begin production within "a few years". The companies involved did not disclose the details, including investment figures. Mathias Geisen, head of Mercedes' van sector, merely told reporters: "We will both benefit greatly from this joint venture," adding that the collaboration will help the partners meet the multibillion-dollar costs of producing electric vans.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/mercedes/ on Fri, 09 Sep 2022 08:58:16 +0000.