Rivian‘s Software Chief Wassym Bensaid attended the IAA Auto Show on Tuesday in Germany, where he was seen visiting Audi and Scout Motors — two brands belonging to the EV maker’s partner Volkswagen Group.
Upon visiting Audi‘s booth, the Rivian executive posted on X two pictures of the ‘Concept C’, a fully electric two-seat sports vehicle debuted by the German brand at the auto show.
“This car is stunning in person,” Bensaid wrote. “I’m in love.”
The German premium brand announced last week that it will launch its first vehicles equipped with Rivian-developed software in 2028.
This move also marks Audi‘s entry into the Rivian–Volkswagen Group (RVG) joint venture, becoming part of the legacy automaker’s wider group.
Audi CEO Gernot Döllner told UK media outlet Autocar that the automaker is “heavily working on it with the Rivian–Volkswagen joint venture, building up mules right now and working intensively together, so the first cars are already on their way.”
Bensaid also visited Volkswagen‘s EV brand Scout Motors — for which Rivian is also developing software and zonal architecture, as announced late last year.
The US brand is not present at the IAA Munich Auto Show, and has not yet entered European markets.
However, it intends to expand to the Old Continent in 2027, with its mid-size $45,000 SUV R2 — expected to launch in the first half of next year.
According to a picture shared by the X user ‘TheEVuniverse,’ Volkswagen Group had a dedicated area to the joint-venture.
Rivian and Volkswagen entered a partnership late last year, according to which the German automaker agreed to invest $5.8 billion in the EV maker as it adopts Rivian‘s zonal architecture and software stack in its future electric vehicles.
Earlier this year, Bensaid, who is also the joint ventures’ co-CEO and Chief Technology Officer (CTO), commented on the project, that “inexpensive cars shouldn’t have low technology.”
To Bensaid, VW’s hardware complexity — “different seats, different doors, different lights, different sensors, different cameras in the different vehicles” — can be mitigated “by moving it to software.”
Besides Audi and Scout Motors, Rivian‘s software will be integrated in Volkswagen‘s upcoming ID.1 model, an entry-level vehicle to its electric lineup and the first software-defined vehicle from the legacy automaker, according to the brand’s CEO Thomas Schäfer.
Volkswagen announced earlier this year that the production version will be launched in 2027, having been anticipated from 2028.
Rivian is based in the US, where it also has its production, and is present in Canada, where the RVG joint venture is now setting up a development team.
The company is currently hiring for several roles in Toronto, including Android Software Engineers, Simulation Software Engineers, and Embedded Software Engineers.
The Irvine-based EV maker secured a $1 billion equity investment from Volkswagen Group, following the achievement of a gross profit milestone in the first quarter of the year, which was a condition for the investment to follow through.
After the second quarter earnings results a month ago, Rivian‘s CFO Claire McDonough noted that its Software and Services segment reported “another strong quarter” with $376 million of revenue and $129 million of gross profit.
“About half of the revenue within Software and Services was a result of the Software and Electrical Hardware joint venture we created with Volkswagen Group,” the CFO added then.
