RV Tech, the joint venture between Volkswagen Group and Rivian, has completed a successful winter testing programme, it said this morning. The partnership was created in 2024 when VW Group announced it would invest $5.8 billion in the American electric vehicle maker to gain access to Rivian’s expertise in vehicle software and electronic architecture. VW Group initially paid Rivian $1 billion in cash, with more to be paid over time: an additional $1 billion to be paid upon completion of winter testing milestones.
VW decided to turn to Rivian after a difficult history with its own internal software development. It created a new division in 2019 to develop software for cars, then immediately bit off more than it could chew by trying to develop three different vehicle operating systems. Things went smoothly when two new platforms, used by cars such as the VW ID.4 and the Porsche Macan, went against the grain due to software-related delays, which led to the dismissal of chairman Herbert Diess and delayed a third platform until the end of the decade.
Meanwhile, Rivian had no such problems developing its own vehicle electronic architecture and software, starting from a clean sheet free of generations of legacy. As a startup automaker, Rivian needs money, and since Volkswagen needs better technology, the joint venture makes a lot of sense.
to the arctic circle
Automakers love to test cars in the Arctic Circle. This is as cold an environment as any car is going to drive, so if you can make your systems reliable in those extreme temperatures, they should be fine even in mild winters. And there are plenty of frozen lakes, with huge flat expanses of thick ice on which cars can be driven without worry. So you can test chassis tuning and traction and stability control functions at the same time.
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