Rivian is a budding electric car manufacturer headquartered in the United States. Despite not having a single production car on the lineup so far, the company is quite a major success among the investors.
This February, a group of companies controlled by Amazon invested 700M USD into the startup, followed by around 500M from Ford in April and another 350M from Cox Automotive this fall.
All three companies thus became official partners of Rivian, which entitles them to certain benefits. According to the agreements, Rivian pledges to produce 100,000 electric vans for Amazon, share the car architecture and tech with Ford, and sign a service and logistics contract with Cox Automotive.
Now, another investment came in in the amount of 1.3 billion U.S. dollars. This is the fourth and largest chunk of funding Rivian has got this year.
The company unveiled its first two EVs at the LA Auto Show 2018. Both the R1S SUV and the R1T pickup truck come based on a versatile ‘skateboard chassis’ and offer a choice from three battery sizes. The largest battery promises more than 600 kilometers (375 miles) of range.
The production is planned for late 2020 – early 2021 in Illinois, USA.