VW extends partnership with Rivian

DESPITE HAVING A HUGE RANGE of different products and brands under the Volkswagen Group banner, VW is expanding its partnership with Rivian. Yahoo Finance reports that all future Volkswagen battery electric vehicles (BEV) will be underpinned by Rivian’s R2 mid-sized BEV architecture. Rivian chief software officer and co-head of the Rivian-Volkswagen joint venture, Wassym Bensaid, said the duo will work together to see the R2 platform underpin as many products as possible. Rivian’s upcoming R2 – a close in all respects to the Tesla Model Y – is a key part of that collaboration, said Mr Bensaid, providing modular, scalable architecture across a range of Rivian and Volkswagen products. “R2 is the platform that will underpin actually all future EV products at VW,” he stated. “It’s really that modular, scalable technology stack that we will take into VW brands, and we will do it in a way where we will still allow each of the brands to express their own identity.”