Rivian addressed its multi-billion-dollar joint venture with Volkswagen Group on Thursday, sharing new updates on the progress of their joint venture.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer RJ Scaringe revealed that the two companies have begun winter testing on VW vehicles as scheduled.
“I’m very pleased that we have delivered vehicles for winter testing for multiple Volkswagen Group brands, 13 months after the formation of the joint venture,” he stated.
The German automaker pledged to invest up to $5.8 billion in the Irvine-based company as they co-develop software architecture to be included in upcoming models of the VW Group.
The joint venture, named RV Tech, was established in late 2024.
Last November, they announced that fully electric models from Volkswagen, Audi, and Scout Motors would begin winter testing in the first quarter of 2026.
By then, the legacy automaker also revealed that engineering prototypes of the ID.1 were already undergoing testing at RV Tech’s facilities in Palo Alto and Irvine, California.
The Scalable Systems Platform (SSP) is expected to be used on up to 30 million vehicles across multiple brands and price segments of the Group.
Software Revenue
Rivian reported strong Software and Services financials in the fourth quarter, with $447 million of revenue and $179 million of gross profit.
About 60% of that revenue came from the joint venture with VW Group, equivalent to
$273 million.
According to Chief Financial Officer Claire McDonough, the company expects to receive “an additional $2 billion of capital as part of our joint venture with the Volkswagen Group” in 2026.
Of this, $1 billion will be “investment subject to the successful completion of winter testing,” while the other billion will be “nonrecourse debt,” paid in October.
Last year, after achieving its first profitable quarter, Rivian received the first tranche of VW Group’s investment — $1 billion in equity.
That funding immediately made Volkswagen one of Rivian’s largest backers, second only to Amazon.
With the next round of investment approaching, VW could soon become Rivian’s biggest institutional shareholder.
First Models Under SPP
Production of the ID.1 is expected to begin in 2027, and the model will be the first to include Rivian‘s software stack outside of the EV maker’s lineup.
The first model to include the software will actually be the Rivian R2, a more affordable SUV scheduled to launch on March 12.
Speaking about the upcoming debut, Chief Software Officer Wassym Bensaid wrote on LinkedIn that he is “incredibly proud of how the cross-functional team executed across Rivian and Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies.”
Bensaid serves as the co-CEO of the joint venture, alongside Volkswagen Group‘s Carsten Helbing.
Integration Besides VW’s EVs
The software stack developed with Rivian through the ‘RV Tech’ joint venture is planned not only for deployment across VW vehicles but also for future licensing to other automakers.
Last year, RJ Scaringe highlighted that the partnership with VW Group is “the existing proof” that Rivian can work across “large ranges of price and product features” and “very different vehicle form factors.”
“And if you’re another car company, you couldn’t look at Rivian and say— maybe before you could have, but now you couldn’t— ‘Well, I don’t think you could do this at this price point’,” he stated, adding that, “Well, actually we cover every price point across the spectrum.”
As global EV policies evolve, however, questions have emerged about whether software developed with the EV maker Rivian can also support VW‘s hybrid or ICE vehicles, according to a report by Manager Magazine last year.
The same outlet reported last month that, since VW is expected to produce gasoline-powered vehicles for longer than initially expected and Rivian’s software is designed only for pure EVs, the German automaker has kept Cariad operating at an extra cost of billions of euros.
Brand Identity
Another potential friction point is that VW Group‘s brands wanted greater room for customization, while Rivian favors keeping the software simple and uniform.
The EV maker has admitted to the concern of respecting brand identity through its partnerships with other brands, either VW or other OEMs in the future.
In a new interview with Edmunds late last year, Rivian‘s Chief Design Officer Jeff Hammoud highlighted the challenge of its shared technology being expressed differently when it’s about Rivian or other brands.
“We wouldn’t want a Rivian to feel like a Porsche or a Volkswagen or an Audi, or vice versa,” Hammoud stated, remaining cautious on the technology deployment, as he noted that “depending on how you skin it and how you change it, it can really change the experience.”
However, “that goes into more of a discussion of how does Rivian, as a brand, say, ‘Actually, this is something we’re happy with sharing.’ Where, in contrast, this is ours.”
As the company revealed new details on its Autonomy platform on December 11, it clarified that these upgrades would not be part of its software partnership with Volkswagen Group.
The CEO reiterated on Thursday that “the Volkswagen fleet and what ultimately we’re delivering to Volkswagen from a technology platform doesn’t include our autonomy platform.”
“So it’s our embedded software platform, our topology of ECUs, including our zonal architecture,” he said, however, noting that “it doesn’t include our self-driving architecture.”
‘Strong’ Relationship
Responding to analysts’ questions, Scaringe dismissed problems in the relationship between the two companies, saying that it “has been very, very strong.”
“We had a great session, in fact, coincidentally last week with a broad set of the Volkswagen Group leadership team,” he revealed.
As the companies work towards launching the first VW models using the software in 2027, the Rivian CEO highlighted the scalability of the technology.
According to him, “seeing this be used and deployed across not just vehicles of similar price point to Rivian‘s vehicles, but across the price point — across a wide band of price points and across a range of form factors — is really important.”
“Ultimately, we’re going to continue working towards delivering multiple Volkswagen Group products,” he noted, adding that “this does, of course, open the door for opportunity with other manufacturers as well.”
