Desperate Rivian Seeks Bailout From Volkswagen

[@wallstreetmillennial]

👉 Head to brilliant.org/wallstreetmillennial/ to start your free 30-day trial and 20% discount on your annual premium subscription.

[@jermunitz3020]

Thanks for dropping the scam sponsors like better health and whatever gambling site you were shilling. This is much better

[@gabe_0x]

@@jermunitz3020 Use SponsorBlock 👍

[@parafitality2730]

Do some bullish videos, most of your recent videos are completely bearish

[@mustangthings]

Steve O has made a real comeback. Hard to believe he went from jackass to Rivian CEO!

[@antr7493]

[@douglasfeldman7800]

He got his voice back too

[@rendarecorrentecomopcoes2336]

As weird as it sounds, SteveO's dad was a CEO for GM Brazil in the 80's and 90's or something like that. He's just staying in hia family's business.

[@doalwa]

God bless him 😂

[@ProgrammerInProgress]

He'd have been a Jackass to not take that job!

[@matthewunderwood6142]

I thought about going to Rivian and try to negotiate. If they pay me $15,000.00, I will promise NOT to purchase a Truck, that they would lose $31,000.00 if I purchase it.

[@williamford9564]

PRICELESS!!

[@louiec.9782]

Lol

[@jimmyyu2184]

You, are definitely a thinking man, I like it!!!

[@Theoryofcatsndogs]

This is so dark.

[@mrjohngalenhenry]

Making cars at a loss isn’t a viable business model?

[@d4v1do]

Well Tesla used to do that to be fair

[@PepeTheFrog2016.]

Tesla's feedback loop is extremely short as compared to other car manufacturers. That probably played a huge role in decreasing the cost of teslas. @@d4v1do

[@денисбаженов-щ1б]

Tesla was making it for many years - but facing little competition and with government help, survived. Now Evil Elon wants to suffocate his competitors using Trump.

[@joeyscleaninglady2877]

@@d4v1do tesla was always margin positive (outside 1 quarter), the capex is what made them lose money. Rivian has never been margin positive.

[@higgs923]

They plan to make it up with volume.

[@jsimsgt96]

Rivian did the work. Volkswagen will acquire it for pennies

[@aritakalo8011]

Nah. They already did their buy. They bought the license for the electrical architecture, which is the real key. Not software. Software is the easy part. The hard part is the electrical and electronics architecture on top of which to run the software. VWs main problem was, they had decades of legacy control boxes, newer designed for network centrist car. Which makes updating them real hard and straight out rules out some features. Since simply for example "this thing can not be remote controlled and monitored. It was never designed for it. It is designed to have physical control button and driver looking status light lit or not lit". VW bought the license and now they can turn to Bosch, Siemens etc. and go "here is the design document and license, make this for us times gazillion". Now they have network centrist doo hickey x,y,z and it makes writing the software easier. On top of that what is most likely most valuable is the middle ware and drivers Rivian has for all said doohickey x,y,z and design specs. Why would VW want Rivians factories etc. VW already has lots of factories and so on. They just revived Scout. VW doesn't want to get bogged down with RIvian. This wasn't an "investment". It was tech license buy paid in form of investment. VW doesn't care, if they lose all the money on the investment. They already got what they wanted, which is the automotive electronics and software middle ware designs. Oh and the Scouts look like the Rivian, because the Rivian looks like the scout.... the old International harvester scout and obviously the new scout is designed to have family resemblance with the old scout. And well nothing new under the sun. The big automotive players have always stayed in business by licensing stuff from up start rivals or dedicated R&D automotive shops. Who spun up solely for "we develop new automotive thingie and then we get a big player to license it".

[@Jinchuricki27]

Exactly what I'm thinking

[@albeit1]

Will probably happen to Lucid too.

[@jsimsgt96]

@@aritakalo8011 that’s true but when it comes to bankruptcy court I am correct. Vw is strategically loaning them money so they have the biggest seat at the table.

[@jagjotbehbal742]

yes, if the saudi money dies​@@albeit1

[@AlexBooster]

Summary: Volkswagen made an excellent business deal and will come out on top. Even after Rivian goes bust.

[@user-kc1tf7zm3b]

Volkswagen is all but finished, their after tax profits have fallen by 64% compared to last year. The notion that VW are making “excellent business” and will “come out on top” is pure fantasy as this just not concur with the facts. Just like the rest of legacy auto, VW ignored the EV revolution of the 2020s and are now in corporate dire straits because of it.

[@Allen-L-Canada]

Rivian got a bad deal in their desperation.

[@michaelwebster-clark9865]

Forget 50%, even if 100% of the cost of the vehicle was materials, a 20% reduction in cost of materials would still leave them more than 10K in the hole per vehicle...

[@Meatball2022]

There’s a gaping hole in your business plan when you make a product that has a negative contribution margin

[@flakgun153]

@@Meatball2022 It's really fucking hard to make something like a car margin positive without scale. They can't jump straight into making a bazillion vehicles. This would be true for any traditional ICE car manufacturer too. They didn't have a choice but to lose money on every vehicle until they sold enoughh to break even

[@Meatball2022]

I’m sure it is hard to make a profit in a car company. That’s why none of them ever make it. Tesla is the only real exception in modern history. But it doesn’t matter. They’re not even close. No scale will overcome a -30% contribution margin. And to make things worse, their answer to their profitability issues is to start a new vehicle line??? Rivian isn’t much different than spinlaunch at this point.

[@kevinbarry71]

I love how the Rivian CEO describes reality as "the noise".

[@Allen-L-Canada]

Rivian got a bad deal in their desperation.

[@efittim7]

It is noise - reality is not obvious at first, their costs did go down if you look at the balance sheet

[@AaronVanWolfen]

Volkswagen can't even save itself 💀💀💀

[@денисбаженов-щ1б]

So it's why VW is investing billions in US companies, and is overselling Tesla in Norway - when less people buy from Evil Musk, and more and more - from other brands

[@samsonsoturian6013]

Volkswagen is profitable while EVs are not

[@rami8896]

@@samsonsoturian6013 Bro VW is closing down factories, that is not a good sign. But, I guess the automotive business is not a good industry to invest in. Ill stay away from car companies when i buy stocks.

[@lv7603]

@@samsonsoturian6013lmao no😂😂

[@letsburn00]

Volkswagen goes through ups and downs. But they have a long term attitude and German business-worker methods are very good long term. The anti-boeing effectively.

[@duancoviero9759]

Rivian makes a good product but its hard to see them becoming profitable especially since they play in a niche luxury market.

[@SnowmanTF2]

They seem to be trying to replicate what Tesla did years earlier, since are initially settled with low volume production runs and a lot of R&D for a clean sheet design, they are inherently going to be expensive relative to more established vehicle platforms. First aiming at the luxury market makes it more plausible to at least be revenue neutral as build experience, work force, production capacity, and design higher volume vehicles. So eventually get to point are producing enough that can compete across entire market on cost, but even Tesla is not really competing with the classic entry model price points. Though with more EVs in the space today, it is harder for a startup to position themselves as a clear leader. There is also the issue of legacy ICE manufactures also have been trying to sell more in the luxury market, to help subsidize their EV development and changeover in production. With both EV and ICE vehicles showing signs that market is oversaturated.

[@Noah_E]

Plus, they're ugly. I've seen a few of their trucks and a single SUV 'in the wild' and they look like vehicles aliens would make based on never seeing a normal one.

[@regolith1350]

Analyst: You're losing 30 grand on every car. Rivian: Don't worry, we'll make it up in volume!

[@michaelmoorrees3585]

I'm a retired EE, and spent most of career in embedded control. I find it surprising, that Volkswagen, and several other auto makers, have so much trouble with their electronics control. This is old stuff. At this stage of that technology, this is NOT rocket science. Sounds more like hiring too many incompetent people, that think Windows, and similar (Apple, Android, etc) is what computing is. Too many clueless Python programmers.

[@ericmunene8521]

You are absolutely right In a seminar Dave Patterson said with the current stagnation of hardware optimization, software engineering must be rethinked from making it easy to making it optimal

[@joeyscleaninglady2877]

Rivian is using off the shelf QNX neutrino and an android hypervisor... they are really not re inventing the wheel at all but it is expensive in terms of license fees to pay all these software suppliers for RTOS not to mention the BSP design etc. It isn't like Tesla who uses off the shelf linux hardened for automotive.

[@yayinternets]

I'm a Software Engineer; my last position was to lead a slice of creating a cloud product for a major desktop software. It was really hard to push against tons of c++ people with zero cloud experience, execs only familiar with Windows Desktop, etc. That was a company of 2400 or so; it would literally be impossible to inact change in VW to fix it. Their only way out is acquiring/partnering with other companies.

[@nicoj9984]

I'm German and own a company that's providing all kinds of individual software solutions for smaller businesses that don't have the capacity to do that on their own. I also know quite a few people working in IT and software developemnt at bigger German companies, including VW and other car manufacturers. You are right, the problem is incompetence, however not on the programmer/developer level, but higher up: the boomer managers that used to call the shots just didn't look at software, UI/UX, integration/ecosystem and so on as an important part of their product, but rather as something that had to be functional, nothing more. As a consequence, they simply never invest properly in the consumer facing part of the software until it blew up in their faces as they massivly lost market share to competitors like (in the car space) Tesla, BYD and other Asian manufacturers, that may build inferior products when it comes to the underlying technology and quality, but provide a much, much better user experience to their customers when it comes to software. Now all of them are scrambling to catch up after years of neglect - well, for me, business is booming right now...

[@ViperVizier]

I know they pay embedded software engineer less than python programmers. That's why good talents go to the other way.

[@doalwa]

„Boss, we’re losing thousands of dollars with every vehicle sold“! „Not to worry, we’ll make it up in volume“! 😂

[@MegaCooliam]

VW really playing it smart actually. I'm impressed.

[@денисбаженов-щ1б]

VW - VAG - brands over-sold Tesla in Norway, the most mature market for EVs. So people having a lot of choice more and more opt for non-Tesla cars.

[@joeyscleaninglady2877]

the smartest part is the first tranche was a loan so they are getting interest on their "investment"

[@dot.6799]

@@денисбаженов-щ1б Most people doesn’t understand that Teslas aren’t that popular outside of North America

[@денисбаженов-щ1б]

@@dot.6799 The worst part is that Americans TALK a lot about Tesla, and some buy shares. But a small percentage is really owning a Tesla. After Evil Musk affair with Trump, many people will switch from Tesla in US, and even more - in Europe.

[@stevewilson6193]

@@денисбаженов-щ1б agreed. I have a model 3 now, but when I buy next, it will be Rivian.

[@jameslouizbuilds]

Who would even think of buying a car from a company that might go bust in the next 2 years?

[@renegarcia2857]

Specially a car that relies so heavily on software to work properly, what happens to the car once the company shuts down and leaves the software vulnerable? Who would be able to give proper maintenance to the vehicle?

[@mortazavi11]

People who are tesla haters.

[@artemisfowl52]

Fun fact: there are US laws that require auto manufacturers to build enough parts to support a vehicle for 15 years. It's not perfect, but the law exists so there's less risk on the customer for being an early adopter. The software side has not caught up with the hardware side.

[@Jeez001]

⁠lot of rivian buyers already have a tesla so they are definetly not tesla haters

[@TRXMOE]

The same ppl that bought fisker .....

[@Cowboydjrobot]

I am VERY skeptical of all these software heavy vehicles. A lot of features are pay-walled. And a lot of features like app control require external servers to handle requests. What happens if the company goes under? What happens if it gets bought? What happens to my car if those servers go offline? Do I get all of the paywalled features for free or more likely am I locked out of using them forever even if I’m willing to pay? What happens if new updates make my vehicle or experience worse? We’ve all seen software updates that made the product worse. Now that can happen to my car? All of that is excusable if the car is inexpensive and the company is unlikely to fold. But rivians are hugely expensive and the company is on the brink of collapse.

[@logicxhardcorex]

They want to turn cars into phones where everything is a subscription and no right to repair or right to own even GM and probably all other big car companies already state that they own the software on the car and are licensing it to you. One step closer to you will own nothing and be happy

[@andrearoberts1953]

To quote Scotty from Star Trek, "The more complicated the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain".

[@tokomok]

Rivian has no pay walled features. The trucks and SUVs do not need a server to drive. Calm down with the FUD.

[@worldstar907]

dude I just want to go from a to b and some power under the hood, idgf about software

[@jacobburesh8522]

ive been watching your vids for about a year now. the quality of the research is still great. im not even a business/finance guy but ive learned a lot from these vids.

[@AEVMU]

I see these things all over Laguna Beach everyday, to the point I'm convinced they have 5-10 people that are paid to drive them around all day as a marketing effort.

[@Ronniezim]

Three people in my little neighborhood have them. I’m still driving ICE cars, but I think these are quite popular with EV lovers with a little money in their pockets

[@williamford9564]

Remember years ago when the Toyota Prius came out? Toyota was giving the cars away to and paying celebrities to drive them to create buzz. It was all to get the celeb paparazzi to buy the cars of their favorite stars.

[@sc3ku]

I live in a city in Arkansas and see them often. A friend told me he was seeing them too and interested. I said don’t risk it for now, would be bad if they go under and you have zero support!

[@Rockiii9]

Volkswagen is, for the first time in history, closing plants in Germany. It’s also losing money in China, a critical market. VW is in no position to be bailing anyone out, but very close to needing a bailout itself.

[@MatthewEGolden]

This is like when Kmart bailed out Sears.

[@williamford9564]

?? Both companies went bankrupt.

[@USACars-id3bf]

Both went down hard and fast

[@williamford9564]

You hit the nail on the head. VW knows there is no way Rivian is going to make the numbers in 2025 to get the additional cash. Rivian eventually runs of money but VW owns the software.

[@Allen-L-Canada]

Rivian got a poor deal out of desperation.

[@sc3ku]

@@Allen-L-CanadaShows how bad things really are at Rivian

[@mohamedchebab9917]

@@Allen-L-Canada why do you keep spamming this reply to every comment?!

[@trevorglenn3215]

I bought Rivian shares prior to the VW announcement sold at a gain . VW helping Rivian is like a drowning man trying to save another drowning man. Also gave me Sears / K-Mart partnership vibes.

[@NewJak14]

Any company that didn't realize 10 years ago how critical their internal operational software and product related software is, deserves to fail.

[@stavas05]

vw did invest billions into their sowftware over the last 10 years, they just failed to make anything That works

[@who2u333]

I like Rivian, but RJ sounds like he is in "fake it until you make it" mode.

[@daveh7517]

The Cybertruck has taken the electric truck market and Rivian as a brand is already done. The Volkswagen partnership is just like the blind guiding the blind.

[@djayjp]

Genius idea: you guys should pair up with Hindenburg Research to offer simultaneous video and paper publication. You guys do the video side to help them get the word out. You don't ask for any compensation because it'll help your channel with the exclusive, first content and you can take a short position prior to publication.

[@budgetdrift6403]

Such a shame because they make incredible vehicles they just can’t get that price down

[@alessandroh10]

there is one reason, one reason alone: green nonsense.

[@truth6242]

7:55 What "Heeahh-Pend" LOL Straight outta Chicago. The strongest accent I have ever heard in recent memory.

[@18000rpm]

How TF do you burn $6B in one year. That's $700K per hour, 24 hours a day for 365 days god damn. You literally cannot burn $100 bills that fast.

[@mohamedchebab9917]

they didn't burn 6 billion per year, where did you see this info

[@Meatball2022]

They should just pivot and become an automotive software company

[@TheEinharjar]

I worked for WirelessCar after Cariad (Volkswagens software division) bought it, man that was the worst job I ever had, infinite meetings, most boring colleagues, dumb management, a shit tonne of middle-management and HR, got fired when my dog died. To be fair, most of that is a Swedish work climate problem, not a german one, but VGCS, Volvos remaining part of WirelessCar seems to work much better, even if not perfect.

[@dobbo7690]

If Rivian can’t sell cars, why not ramp up delivery van production? Amazon has only received 10,000 while their fleet numbers 100,000. Sell to the public. Are those money losers as well?

[@billmyke746]

VW seems intent on investing heavily into a product that the public has no intent on consuming. Genius.

[@blake.phillips]

Did you watch the whole video? Their “investment” is just basically first dibs on their software ip when the company inevitably goes bust. Pretty smart move by them

[@billmyke746]

​@@blake.phillipsyes I did, your point is quite valid. Thanks. 👍

[@rami8896]

@@blake.phillips Too bad VW will most likely go bust with them

[@cjmhall]

@@rami8896 German government wouldn't let that happen.

[@kalb.3002]

I’ve plenty of Rivians on the road

[@Seagaltalk]

Don't need all this software in car. They can drive just fine without it. Only need a good audio system. Everything else is something more to go wrong or become outdated.

[@கோபிசுதாகர்]

Very true. Agreed 💯

[@Entertainment-]

Software controls everything in the car, even steering in some.

[@josefv-y8m]

Hmm...no car will move without Software...even if there would be no Infotainment, we are talking about Million Lines of Code for controlling the engine etc...I have seen and serviced the Software, which programms the ICEs...nearly for any OEM. 10 years ago, it was at about 150Mio Lines for a Car...now about the double. Just as comparison...Windows has about 80 Mio Lines of Code.

[@Seagaltalk]

@josefv-y8m lol cars moved well before software was invented and you know exactly the type of software that I was referring to. Find somewhere else to practice your quibbling hobby

[@worldstar907]

do these people also care so much about the software in their dishwasher?

[@kyk1682]

Love your stuff man. Thanks for putting in the effort

[@douginorlando6260]

Soul? “I sold my con to Volkswagen”. There, fixed it for ya

[@0HOON0]

The R1T is an outstanding product.

[@briannyob7799]

But it's way too expensive to sell in the numbers Rivian needs it to.

[@jomu23]

I've been driving around a '24 GTI for the last three weeks. Can confirm that the software us awful. So are the haptic buttons.

[@worldstar907]

do you also care about the software in your dishwasher? what is all this fuzz about software, I don't get it.

[@Nick-ue7iw]

It actively subtract from the driving experience. Try reading instead of speaking.

[@leoperez2566]

but who is going to bail out VW?

[@theplayerofus319]

no one in the long run

[@duerf5826]

VW had $70B of cash on hand. Any “news” of VW going bust is pure nonsense.

[@theplayerofus319]

@@duerf5826 its great to have that much, however their debt is a concern and future perspective. Sure they wont go "bust" but years of decline for such a company is practicly going "bust" everyone loses

[@Entertainment-]

The German and Qatari governments

[@chicitizen]

I think Rivian should just be a software company, or maybe they should just make the parts for electric vehicles. They seem to excel in those areas. The only other option would be diversify its product line, perhaps creating electric bikes, motorcycles or scooters.

[@FriedChairs]

They don’t even make the parts. They aren’t vertically integrated like Tesla so they pay premium to buy low volume parts from vendors.

[@yayinternets]

They are great at design and material selection as well. I think if VW took over the manufacturing process they'd both do well.

[@chicitizen]

@@FriedChairs Really. Damn.

[@michael.sierra]

I think partnerships are the future. Check out the Honda Prologue, a partnership between GM and Honda. It's becoming a sales success, and hey, we love ours, we have a Pacific Blue AWD Touring model in our driveway. Thanks to $14K in incentives it was affordable for us - MSRP is about $57K. My partner saw the Scout EVs which are at a similar price point to the Prologue and thinks he'll replace his Nissan ICE vehicle with one of those when they come out. That price point is still affordable for many people. Now, Rivian has it a lot more difficult with the R1... They are nice vehicles but at that price point, not a mass market vehicle. R2 and R3 will be in the perfect price point, they just need to be able to make those profitably, which IDK how they will do that if the R1 which is $25K more can't be profitable.

[@Nick-ue7iw]

You mean the past? GM and Toyota partnered in the 90s, Chrysler and Mitsubishi in the 80s. It's nothing new.

[@freezingsunset7354]

Steve-O is building cars? Nice!

[@johnnysanchez574]

Yeah dude!

[@derek04151]

Working together I think they could make a really great EV.

[@kieranelliott5607]

Ah, Rivian, the gift that keeps on giving.

[@rriveranotario]

VW is not in need of saving

[@natesbaits3234]

So... short them? 😅

[@CompTechMike]

A whole lot of you have never driven a Rivian vehicle or even sat in one, and it shows. 🙄

[@djhscdhxgsdhv]

The company still will lose 40k per vehicle whatever

[@CompTechMike]

@@djhscdhxgsdhv on track for profitability by Q4. Tesla spent 17 years unprofitable, as did many other major companies. But please, tell us more about how you don't understand development costs.

[@jaysolomon4426]

Dont forget about the range extender that scout is adding as an option for the Scout Traveler. This will possibly be the nail in the coffin for Rivian if they dont add this option at some point.

[@diZrupt0r]

The VW deal is great for VW, but hopeless for Rivian. Strange move for Rivian

[@tripplefives1402]

Remember when WSE said rivian and other manufacturers was going to compete with Tesla? Pepperidge Farm remembers.

[@candaceilove]

Great video. VW has the messiest ownership chart and now with this Rivian investment it is even crazier. You are correct in saying VW has terrible software. Industry tear down leaders like Sandy Munru say that VW should have never fired Herbert Diess, as they could have had a licensing deal with Tesla. Diess and Musk became friends and Tesla is eating VW's lunch all around Europe and Chinese manufacturers like BYD and 100 others are crushing VW in China.

[@josefv-y8m]

Interesting...VAG (VW, Audi, Seat, Skoda) sold about 12000 EVs and Tesla only 1200 Model Y (this is the production of 1.5 days in Grünheide) in October in Germany. Tesla is close to become irrelevant, since even BMW sells more EVs in Europe than Tesla. The Numbers for the Model Y sounds always very good and are still very high worldwide...but this is the ONLY car Tesla sells really. And I cannot see that there are any efforts to change this...still only Model Y. Relying only on a single car, will kill Tesla in long term.

[@MikeWazowski42069]

Everyone sleeping on Rivian's EDV eh?

[@beinquisitive]

This is a horrendous business model.

[@michaelmoorrees3585]

The "sold my soul" caption, in the thumbnail is appropriate, as Volkswagen is the Devil ! If Volkswagen "bought" the rights to use the old International Harvester Scout brand, it was only a legal formality, to adhere to corporate law. Volkswagen owns the Traton Group, which in turn owns Navistar International, formally known as International Harvester. In short, Volkswagen already owns that brand. It just had to go through these convoluted steps, due to its corporate structure, and not get into legal trouble, as if that stopped them in the past.

[@brickhunter9537]

Steve O should have started out with suv. Making that small truck first was a mistake.

[@bluesilkdesigns]

I've been bearish on Rivian since they released... I think this will help Volkswagen more than it will help Rivian

[@денисбаженов-щ1б]

After saying VW is doing so bad - "VW has a lot of cash"... VW will win from this venture. They are close to 1,000,000 EVs production per year - for all VAG brands - about 50% of Tesla's production. Huge progress. And if they just sell 1,000,000 VW EVs per year in next, say, 5-7 years, charging extra $1000 per car for infotainment system, they will break even. PLUS saving a lot money on R&D. But Rivian... with Evil Musk who wants now to end all subsidies for EVs - to sink competition like Rivian, Lucid - Rivian will be in a situation of Tesla in late 2010s - burning a lot of cash, AFTER being helped by Democratic government. But no subsidies and a lot more of competition. And Tesla betrayed - its CEO - companies core values, it's why Electrek editor sold all TSLA shares - after many years of support given to this company. I predict TSLA shares to go down 5-10 times by the end of Trump rule, and Musk probably following Enron bosses and Misses Holmes to jail. And VW will be making millions of EVs by then.

[@Dr.Dokman]

Rivians are absurdly popular amongst the well to do folks in Seattle. If you know what I’m talking about, it’s the same demographic that drove the popularity of Tesla model s back in the day.

[@worldstar907]

folks in seattle like to smell their own farts

[@jaymacpherson8167]

“Bailout” - an act of giving financial assistance to a failing business or economy to save it from collapse. One billion a year for, potentially, 5 years is not enough to cover Rivian’s current debt of about $30B. The deal is a stabilizing move, not a bailout. But that doesn’t sound as clickbaiting as your choice Mr. Millennial.

[@mp1p]

Everyone in start ups " we scale" in to bankruptcy

[@drinkwaterinvestments7482]

Rivian will get like $245 million in EV credit sale, that's how they get positive gross margin in Q4

[@brickhunter9537]

Volkswagen is laying down steps to buy out Rivian Pennies on the dollar.

[@sltho]

Steve O ceo should’ve done some more game theory before he signed a deal with it’s eventual owner

[@tuomasholo]

This video has confirmed my fear of buying a Rivian. Even with the $5 billion VW investment, that’s only enough for two quarters of op ex. Yikes

[@REgamesplayer]

I never considered Rivian to be anything other than a speculative company. I guess, this really puts into perspective how much faith I had in them as auto manufacturer. To me, this was always a buyout from VW. I'm happy to see that they seemingly got a better deal of a bargain. They will get the best infotainment system there is for cheaper which otherwise would had costed them.

[@emilsohn1671]

Tesla will still win, also on infotainment. It is as good as Rivian's, but more importantly, Tesla has the cash to keep developing it further for years or decades. VW and Rivian won't have the cash to maintain it nor for much further R&D beyond the state Rivians Software/infotainment is in now. VW bought it today. it will be years before they can utilize it, and by then it will be not as cutting edge as it is today, and they will need to just roll with that or invest more (money they dont have) into further R&D. Tesla has won this already, also on infotainment.

[@emilsohn1671]

Because by the time VW is ready to make use of Rivians software, licenses, platforms etc., Tesla will have moved much farther beyond even that. It's just how it rolls with a company as cutting edge, modern, efficient and well-funded as TSLA. 💪

[@REgamesplayer]

@@emilsohn1671 Tesla had stagnated for a long while with Musk's abysmal leadership. It is no longer 2018.

[@Tkcrypto1]

I find it hilarious that every car company is struggling but y'all act like it's just ev companies

[@GrimboBagworth]

Car companies have years of war chests to pull from that startups don’t

[@gbmoney8746]

Other car companies made billions in profit this year

[@minotaur505]

Also the majority of car manufacturers turn a profit on each car they produce, and aren't competing with a heavily subsidized chinese EV industry

[@ASH-kj1di]

I think VW knew coming into the deal with Rivian that they would just end up owning whatever is left of the company sooner rather than later. The technology and architecture that they will gain for use on the Scout models is most likely a bargain at what will be way less than half the $5 Billion this deal is worth. Rivian will not make it past 2025 at this rate.

[@BallinLikeMike23]

It sounds like Ryan made a deal with the devil

[@efittim7]

So we're completely ignoring the $250M of credits available in Q4?

[@AWHYify]

I really like their cars and really hope they make it out of this in a good way.

[@nujabe]

I do not see Rivian going under i see them either being purchased or they make it, you’re not even factoring for R2 you’re not factoring for other company’s to purchase the vans. You’re also not factoring for even more higher performance model of R1. They just closed a 8b dollar deal. Tesla was so close to being done but they made it to model 3 and won. Teslas model line up is stale as old bread but even with competition they still are still killing it, i believe Rivian has its place just as much as Tesla does.

[@Derekzparty]

Aka "How to promise to pay 1 billion dollars with no intention of paying!" Guess Rivian wasn't able to slip in a no compete clause.

[@michaelkalus7802]

I mean, VW can really only win here. If Rivian goes under, VW can pick up Rivian's share in the bankruptcy and retains all the software / HW they need. If Rivian pulls through, then they both win.

[@GradyHouger]

Look up the Rivian windshield replacement video. Insanely overcomplicated vehicles.

[@leonidas14775]

Car manufacturers are unsolving solved problems with computers these days.

[@worldstar907]

I don't care about the software in my car, infact i don't want screens and apps in my car.

[@davidscholz7489]

Big brain moves by VW

[@Ronniezim]

Those scouts will be better than rivian at half the cost, and VAG will have used the rivian IP to make them haha

[@obsesivegamer]

Their quarterly results are looking worse and worse

[@andilentuli7126]

Why doesn't Riivian just sell it's car-making business to Volkswagon and have Rivian Cars be a sub brand of VW like Audi, Seat and VW? They're bad at making cars cheaply, while VW is bad at software. They can then spin off Rivian Technologies as an EV tech focused standalone company with some equity owned by VW.

[@proximarco]

Get out Rivian and VW Stock asap. Collaps imminent

[@polomadmo]

The problem with Rivian is their cars are ugly and undesirable, they need to fix that if they want to survive.

[@farhanatashiga3721]

I see that they're getting desperate out here

[@dvidsilva]

The CEO of Rivian needs to buy a failing social media startup and cuddle to a fascists regime for subsidies

[@lazerharry7000]

We found the salty delusional liberal! Wow the rest of the country thought you losers were still in hiding over on BlueSky, how brave of you to come out of your safe space!

[@Eduardo-iq3cf]

So VW will ultimately be backstabbing Rivian and Rivian has no choice but to take it and smile.

[@rockpadstudios]

Rivian is dead

[@althunder4269]

Cars are too complicated now. An EV should be even simpler than a gas car.

[@jsivonenVR]

That’s a helluva lot of “seeing thru the noise” fo sho …

[@slimerone]

rivian is just too damn expensive and by the time they have their affordable cars come out

[@Echo4Sierra4160]

VW... that other company that EVs are driving to bankruptcy

[@computersales]

I'm probably didn't listen to this carefully enough but from the sounds of it rivian has no upside beyond the cash they get. Seems like a terrible deal.

[@danrogy]

Rivian’s have been almost ready for a decade. My Volkswagen is a disappointing car.

[@MrBgreen88]

Surprised to hear VW is in the shape it’s in, I always thought it was pretty stable. I love their new SUV’s. Can’t afford them tho lol

[@yu2048]

Rivian’s future depends on R2 not R1T/R1S.

[@andromedach]

VW has labor costs relative to vehicle price higher than BMW and Mercedes

[@nonameleft1]

Disagree Rivian will survive. They makes good products

[@baffinsansterre]

Do not confound good product & good stock.

[@geraldh.8047]

They really should (and probably will) survive. But the video is right about their huge and still unsolved cost challenge. Let’s hope they can fix this ASAP.

[@RanEncounter]

Good product means nothing if they cannot get enough profit from these products...

[@SirZeck]

of course they are making good products for the price, they are selling at a loss.

[@tomshen2647]

Good products do not equal to good economics or business or finances or… etc.

[@dpfreedman]

Those Scout vehicles would be an attractive proposition if they had internal combustion engines in them. I fail to see the allure of an EV SUV or pickup.

[@samuelappiah8395]

Haha quite ironic I’m watching this video when I bought option calls on Rivian

[@adrianvintila5077]

Better VW than BYD

[@ChicagoBob123]

Rivian should have learned how to make a profitable vehicle while it had money.

[@Reutzel507]

Volkswagen needs their own bailout