Ford Invests $500 Million in Electric Truck Maker Rivian (Honda, automaker, technology)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
If you have an ICE fleet pickup at $30K and a Rivian fleet truck at $100k, they'll justify and approve the added expense.
We deal with fleets all the time and they care about COST, with driver comfort a distant second.
No chance they approve something like that. Governments with green agendas may be a different story.
There will never be a Rivian truck. I'd bet good money that there was never any intention of there being one.
There may never be a Rivian branded truck but there may be trucks (and other vehicles) based on Rivian tech. IMHO, their goal was to market the skateboard that goes under the body and that base can be sold to other manufacturers.
The $500 million investment by Ford, which is less than the $800 million Amazon invested, is a lot less than the cost to develop a platform. Further, Ford invested the money to keep other manufacturers away from the technology.
As long as they plan on US WORKING CITIZENS to be employed to make them, Are they????
Vehicles are built by robots. This is 2019. Wherever the factory is, it will not employ a ton of people. Those days are gone. If it is made into an option for the F-150, it will probably be assembled in Dearborn. There will unquestionably be at least some US citizens employed to make some part of these, just as there are with basically every vehicle on the market. Every vehicle on the market has citizens of most major countries touching some part of it.
Ford wants to sell its trucks globally and there are places in the world where the economics of ICE vs. electric are very different from the US, particularly Europe and East Asia.
Rivian seems to have a very impressive platform. I am amused at those who seem to respond to the story by shooting from the hip and flatly predicting Rivian to be a future failure and Ford to be morons for investing now. Tech is a risky business and EVs are a rapidly evolving sector... but none of that predisposes Rivian to failure or implies that Ford has made a mistake. It's a time of change, and all the automakers are rolling the dice these days - whether they are trying to be leaders, followers or hidebound traditionalists. It's risky to be bold and plunge forward with a new vision, and it's risky to do nothing when most of those around you are experimenting and innovating.
Last edited by OutdoorLover; 04-26-2019 at 07:37 AM..
In the next two years there's going to be a ton more electric vehicles on the road compared to today. Everyday I see minimum of 5 Model 3's, I saw my first one here last July, I live in the coldest major metro in country. The first to do a truck is gonna benefit a ton over it's rivals. I'm clueless how people on here can't see the writing on the wall of how every major car company has each already invested many billions into EV's. All are going to have many electric vehicles in the immediate short term future. The Porsche Taycan is already sold out, it won't be out until later this year.
With my company, if someone makes an EV truck to pull a 16 ft trailer that I can plug in each night at my shop and is priced similar to a gas/diesel, I'm gonna buy to save myself the fuel bill I have monthly. I have a $350 fuel bill each month with just one diesel truck/mower/trimmer/air blower. That fuel bill is larger then my shop rent/utilities...
Rivian seems to have a very impressive platform. I am amused at those who seem to respond to the story by shooting from the hip and flatly predicting Rivian to be a future failure and Ford to be morons for investing now. Tech is a risky business and EVs are a rapidly evolving sector... but none of that predisposes Rivian to failure or implies that Ford has made a mistake. It's a time of change, and all the automakers are rolling the dice these days - whether they are trying to be leaders, followers or hidebound traditionalists. It's risky to be bold and plunge forward with a new vision, and it's risky to do nothing when most of those around you are experimenting and innovating.
I were familiar with Rivian’s backstory you’d understand.
Y'all missing something.
Look at the big picture.
Rivian had some shady history.
Overnight, it is everywhere on every screen and many lips of many talking heads. (read - massive media marketing campaign that actually costs a lot of money. A lot. Likely, as much as to make cars)
Even more suddenly, for whatever reasons fed to the crowd, one of the Big 3 takes Rivian under it's wing, providing it with net security. Now Rivian is backed up by a giant (several, actually).
This tells me this: someone, one of the real decision makers, decided to catapult Rivian into the orbit. Ford and Amazon said - Yes, Sir, boss - and cuddled Rivian.
Way too paranoid, there. This is a little unusual in heavy industry, but SOP in tech. Start a company, get a bunch of VC, develop some IP, market/promote to the Moon, sell out. Repeat.
ETA: It's a lot easier to develop one component - be it a database manager or a truck frame - than it is to develop a whole product to market. That's why well over half of what Microsoft and Apple sell was developed by some micro-firm and acquired. Ford could duplicate what Rivian (or Tesla) has done, but the founders of Rivian know exactly what they're doing: selling a few years of intense component development for a big bundle. That they had a sexy-looking mockup and talked big about the future was just window dressing.
Ford will use the tech to develop their own platform for light trucks. The Rivian DNA will be there, but forgotten.
In the next two years there's going to be a ton more electric vehicles on the road compared to today. Everyday I see minimum of 5 Model 3's, I saw my first one here last July, I live in the coldest major metro in country. The first to do a truck is gonna benefit a ton over it's rivals. I'm clueless how people on here can't see the writing on the wall of how every major car company has each already invested many billions into EV's. All are going to have many electric vehicles in the immediate short term future. The Porsche Taycan is already sold out, it won't be out until later this year.
With my company, if someone makes an EV truck to pull a 16 ft trailer that I can plug in each night at my shop and is priced similar to a gas/diesel, I'm gonna buy to save myself the fuel bill I have monthly. I have a $350 fuel bill each month with just one diesel truck/mower/trimmer/air blower. That fuel bill is larger then my shop rent/utilities...
Edit, my fuel bill isn't my largest expense, it's my second highest...
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The Porsche Taycan is already sold out, it won't be out until later this year. 
