Rivian help to bring big change for future VW, Audi and Porsche EVs
The boss of US firm Rivian tells us how his company is working with the VW Group to deliver a new generation of advanced electric cars
In an exclusive interview with Auto Express, Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe has provided new insights into the £4.5bn (up to $5.8billion) joint venture between the American start-up and the Volkswagen Group that will help shape the German giant’s next-generation EVs.
The two companies announced their partnership in 2024, forming Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies (RV Tech). The venture is working to produce best-in-class technologies for future electric cars, utilising Rivian’s industry-leading software and electrical hardware and the VW Group’s massive global scale.
More specifically, using its existing technology as a basis, Rivian is working with the VW Group to develop a flexible and streamlined, state-of-the-art zonal electrical architecture, plus new software. These will be deployed primarily on the group’s latest platform, SSP, which numerous brands including Skoda, Cupra, Audi, Porsche and, of course, Volkswagen, are set to use.
This new, more consolidated electronic architecture will use fewer control units and less wiring, meaning reduced weight, cost and complexity in new cars. The new tech should make them better at receiving over-the-air updates, which can add more features and value to cars as they mature.
BMW has gone down a very similar route with its all-new Neue Klasse generation of EVs. Instead of hundreds of traditional electronic control units, the new BMW iX3 features just four central computers, referred to as ‘superbrains’, with its ‘Heart of Joy’ one responsible for every aspect of the driving experience.
The Volkswagen ‘ID. Lupo’ city car arriving in 2027 is set to be the first of many models to feature Rivian’s tech, and while each brand within the VW Group – which also includes Bentley and Lamborghini – is different and wants different things, Scaringe pointed out: “When there are debates or discussions, they’re all in service to make the products better.”
He continued: “Oliver Blume [VW Group CEO] is very much a product person, and very much a car enthusiast as well. So it was very helpful that we both saw eye-to-eye and the desire to make excellent products.
“And then to the extent that we could be helpful in their journey to make excellent products, that was something that was intriguing to both of us… is to say, like, ‘Can your products be even better if we helped?’ And ‘Can we help put more great products into the world?’”
He added: “Culturally, I think that's actually quite helpful that we are not looking at the partnership through the lens of ‘this is just a business deal’. We look at it through the lens of wanting to help create amazing products.”
When the deal with Rivian was announced in 2024, Blume said: “We have a clear plan to offer our customers the best products and digital experiences at attractive prices through state-of-the-art development processes, innovative technological approaches, and a competitive cost base driven by synergies.”
While the founder of an electric-car company, Scaringe still has two old-school speed machines in his garage: a Porsche 993 Carrera 4S and the lesser-known VW Corrado. That was his first car, in fact, and naturally earned him a lot of points with the VW team when he turned up in it to one of the first meetings they had about collaborating.
Porsche was the company that inspired Scaringe to create his own car firm, which he did at the age of 26, the day after graduating from MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Being a lifelong Porsche fan, for him this collaboration is “sort of poetic”.
He explained: “Though not planned, that a brand that helped inspire me to build Rivian is a brand that we’re now helping.”
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