Ford cans Rivian partnership to go it alone with EVs

Ford and Rivian have abandoned plans for a joint-venture to develop electric vehicles, Ford has confirmed.

Back in April 2019, Ford ploughed a considerable $US500 million ($A700m) into the EV start-up in the hope to gain access to Rivian's skateboard EV platform.

The plan was to use the bought-in tech as a shortcut to quickly produce its own pick-ups and EVs.

In October 2020, under the leadership of new CEO Jim Farley, Ford topped up its investment with a further $US415 million ($A570m) to fast-track the collaboration.

As part of the deal, Rivian would benefit by having access to Ford's lightweight aluminium manufacturing tech, mass-production expertise and, crucially, piggyback on its buying power for components.

As recently as this October, Ford announced it was still "exploring ways for a potential collaboration with them [Rivian]", despite admitting it had scrapped earlier plans to launch a Lincoln-branded vehicle based on Rivian's dedicated pure-electric architecture that was also set to use a powertrain developed by the US start-up.

Since then, the Californian-based company has begun production of its 2022 Rivian R1T pick-up and has gone public where Rivian has been valued at twice the value of Ford – a healthy return for Ford's investment that owns around 12 per cent of the fledging EV brand.

Releasing a statement to newswire Reuters, a spokesperson for Ford said: "We respect Rivian and have had extensive exploratory discussions with them,

"However, both sides have agreed not to pursue any kind of joint vehicle development or platform sharing."

Speaking to US industry outlet Automotive News, Farley said Ford now has "growing confidence in our ability to win in the electric space".

“When you compare today with when we originally made that investment, so much has changed: about our ability, about the brand's direction in both cases, and now it's more certain to us what we have to do,” he said.

“We want to invest in Rivian – we love their future as a company – but at this point we’re going to develop our own vehicles.”

Ford has already ramped up the number of battery-electric vehicles it is developing and confirmed it will build 600,000 EVs globally by 2023.

Boosting the Blue Oval's confidence it can go it alone, the first year of its pure-electric Ford Transit has been sold out, with 24,000 reservations, while its 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning pick-up has received more than 160,000 deposits.

Even its Eluminator crate electric motor sold out in a matter of days.

Despite no longer working together, Ford says it will continue to supply parts via its Troy Design subsidiary to Rivian and maintain its 12 per cent stake.

Commenting on the break-up, Rivian said: "Our relationship with Ford is an important part of our journey … Ford remains an investor and ally on our shared path to an electrified future."