Volkswagen confirmed it is evaluating the use of parts of its China-developed architecture in Europe, as the Manager Magazin report had said, while its finance chief said the group’s next-generation SSP electric platform will launch in 2029 “with software from Rivian.”
Arno Antlitz, CFO and Chief Operating Officer, made the comments on Volkswagen’s third-quarter call on Thursday. He did not confirm the scale of the shift the report described, and he called the coverage “potentially also some speculation externally.”
His comments came three days after manager magazin reported that the head of the Volkswagen brand wanted to move most of its mass-market models to the China software.
The Joint Venture
Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies, a 50-50 joint venture set up in November 2024, develops the electrical architecture and software that Volkswagen plans to use across its brands, starting with the low-cost ID. 1. Volkswagen agreed to invest up to $5.8 billion in Rivian and the venture.
Volkswagen paid Rivian $1.0 billion in April for about 63 million shares after testing milestones were met, according to Rivian’s quarterly report. It funded a $1 billion loan through the venture on October 7, and a further $460 million investment remains tied to milestones.
“To date, we’ve received $5.3 billion of the $5.8 billion in expected capital commitments associated with the joint venture, with the remaining $460 million anticipated in late 2027,” Derek Mulvey, who became Rivian’s Interim Chief Financial Officer on Friday, said on Rivian’s call on Thursday.
The April purchase “increases Volkswagen’s equity interest in Rivian to 15.9%,” Volkswagen said in its interim report, making it Rivian’s largest shareholder. It held 14.0% of Rivian’s voting power at the end of September, according to the 10-Q.
The venture has become Rivian’s main source of software revenue. It accounted for $308 million, or 60%, of Rivian’s software and services revenue in the second quarter, and $354 million, or 59%, in the third quarter.
The Report
Volkswagen brand chief Thomas Schäfer wants to build about three-quarters of the next generation of Volkswagen, Skoda and Cupra models on the China Electrical Architecture (CEA) instead of Rivian’s technology, manager magazin reported on October 26, citing insiders.
Schäfer’s team calculated savings of €4 billion to €5 billion ($4.5 billion to $5.6 billion), the magazine said. It reported that an engineering hour at the Rivian venture costs about four times as much as at Volkswagen’s development center in Hefei, China, and that an electric Tiguan developed and built in Europe costs about €8,000 ($8,900) more than one developed in China.
Under Chief Executive Officer Oliver Blume’s current plan, models for Europe and the US use Rivian software, while China-developed technology serves China and export markets, according to the report. Schäfer had pitched the change before, and the board concluded that the group’s software agenda should stay as it was, the magazine said.
Volkswagen declined to comment to Reuters on the report.
Rivian’s Response
Rivian pushed back two days later. “Please do not share rumors and speculations without even checking with Rivian,” Wassym Bensaid, Rivian’s Chief Software Officer and co-CEO of the venture, wrote on X.
“The Volkswagen partnership is going incredibly well and the JV roadmap remains unchanged,” he said, adding that the ID. 1 was on track to launch next year.
On Thursday, Rivian said it had expanded the venture to license elements of its AI voice assistant “as part of the broader electrical architecture and software partnership.”
“Excited to bring the Rivian Assistant and a more integrated AI experience to many more cars around the world!” Bensaid wrote on X that day.
In May, he had described the assistant as outside the venture. “This is special to Rivian,” Bensaid said, before adding: “But we’re in discussions so that we can have similar technologies,” signaling talks to widen the partnership.
Rivian’s 10-Q adds that in September it “granted a license to Volkswagen Group for additional technology in exchange for a one-time payment,” alongside further development work by the venture. It did not name the technology and said no revenue from it had been recognized by the end of September.
The same day, Volkswagen unveiled VEGA, the technology package it developed in China, and said it would bring it to South America by 2030.
‘Speculation Externally’
Christina Amann of Reuters, who co-wrote the agency’s story on the manager magazin report, asked Antlitz on the call when Volkswagen would decide on using the Chinese architecture in Europe, and “What does that mean for the Rivian joint venture?”
“The topic you just mentioned, potentially also some speculation externally on the architecture. Look, we decided on basically a split of our electric architecture,” Antlitz said, according to a transcript of the call.
“We have an electric architecture for the Western world, basically Europe and US The Western world, that we developed together with Rivian,” he said. “So we have basically two toolkits, one for the Western Hemisphere and one for China.”
He did not rule out the move the magazine described. “We also look whether we, or we evaluate whether we can use certain elements of our China architecture and of our China platform in certain areas in Europe,” Antlitz said.
“But the basic decision that we have a Western Hemisphere platform and have a basically Eastern China platform with the Global South is where we stand today, and this hasn’t changed,” he added.
He did not say whether Schäfer’s proposal had been discussed by the board, or when a decision on China elements in Europe would be made.
Confirmed | Not Confirmed
Antlitz’s answers matched several points in the manager magazin report. He confirmed that Volkswagen is evaluating China-developed technology for Europe, the premise of the report, though he spoke of “certain elements” and “certain areas” rather than most of its core models.
He also described the same two-way split the magazine attributed to Blume’s current plan: Rivian software for Europe and the US, and China-developed technology for China. He said Volkswagen is looking at exporting some China-developed cars to Australia, Southeast Asia, Brazil and Mexico, in line with the report’s description of exports to Latin America, Asia and Australia.
His statement that the basic decision “hasn’t changed” matches the report’s account that the board had concluded at an earlier meeting that the group’s software agenda should stay as it was.
He did not confirm the report’s other claims. Antlitz did not address Schäfer’s proposal, the board meeting the magazine said was scheduled for October 27, the three-quarters figure, the SSP31 platforms or the savings of €4 billion to €5 billion.
He also did not address the cost comparisons between the Rivian venture and the Hefei center, or the warning from Rivian skeptics that its software would not be ready for SSP before the end of 2028.
His answer on SSP does conflict with the direction Schäfer wants, as the report described it. The magazine said Schäfer wants the China architecture for the SSP31 f and h platforms, while Antlitz said SSP will carry “software from Rivian.” That describes the current plan, and does not say whether Schäfer’s proposal has been rejected.
SSP ‘With Software From Rivian’
Antlitz went further in the call’s final answer, asked about SSP, the platform Volkswagen expects to bring its electric cars to cost parity with combustion models.
“The SSP is a very important toolkit for us for next generation BEVs, and it will start in 2029. But that market availability with a certain volume would be then at 2030,” he said.
“It will be a highly competitive new toolkit for BEVs, with software from Rivian and with product features and also in terms of battery,” he added, saying batteries would come from Volkswagen’s PowerCo unit.
“It’s a toolkit which we set up throughout the whole Group, from Volkswagen to Audi to Porsche,” he said, adding that 50% of PowerCo’s battery volume would be localized in Spain.
He also said the platform would be “highly flexible,” with “some of the components” possibly coming from China.
Volkswagen already imports some components from China, Antlitz said earlier, citing the electric motor of the ID. EVERY1. “It’s a EUR 20,000 electric car, which we bring next year,” he said.
Volkswagen is using its wholly owned Anhui operation in China as a benchmark for SSP’s costs, Antlitz said earlier, adding that teams there had cut platform costs by almost 50%.
The Rivian Bill
The partnership also showed up in Volkswagen’s cash flow. Its nine-month presentation listed a €0.9 billion ($1.0 billion) payment to Rivian among the items that reduced automotive net liquidity, offset by proceeds from disposals including stakes in Sinotruk and Bugatti Rimac.
The slide was headlined “Net liquidity remains at solid level despite hybrid bond redemption, Rivian payment and dividend.”
Barclays analyst Henning Cosman said on the call that “there should also be less M&A outflow to Rivian” next year, as he asked about 2027 free cash flow.
Antlitz did not address Rivian in his answer, saying Volkswagen would give 2027 guidance in March and was “not planning to spend significant amount on M&A.”
‘A Billboard for the Capability’
Rivian’s founder framed the ID. 1, the small car Volkswagen previewed with the ID. EVERY1 concept, as the venture’s showcase.
“The first real output from the joint venture is going to be launching next year,” Founder and CEO RJ Scaringe said on Rivian’s call. “This is a roughly EUR 20,000 EV that Volkswagen is producing for Europe. We think of that vehicle as really a billboard for the capability.”
He said Rivian sees applications for its technology “not only beyond Rivian, but also beyond this existing joint venture and into other applications with other manufacturers.”
