Ford is investing heavily in technologies that will define the future of the automotive industry. It has earmarked considerable resources for electric and self-driving vehicles. The company has now announced a $500 million investment in electric vehicle startup Rivian and is going to work with the startup to build a new electric vehicle using its technology.
Rivian has seen a lot of interest from other big companies as well. Amazon led a $700 million investment round in the country just two months ago. General Motors was reportedly considering an investment in the company as well.
The company may not be well known but it has been around for almost a decade, working on its electric vehicle technology rather quietly. It hadn’t even announced its first vehicles until it had a manufacturing facility to build them. It didn’t even tease them when they were in the prototype stage, opting to show them when the development cycle was quite far along.
Ford has already been working on an all-electric version of its F-150 truck and this deal isn’t going to affect that. Ford is going to build another electric vehicle on Rivian’s “flexible skateboard platform.” This includes the electric drivetrain and the battery pack which is used in its own electric vehicle, the R1S SUV, and R1T pickup truck due next year.
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