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- EVU Report 135: VW 🤝 Rivian — Rimac's robotaxi Verne unveiled — Fisker bankrupt
EVU Report 135: VW 🤝 Rivian — Rimac's robotaxi Verne unveiled — Fisker bankrupt
Caution! High Voltage!
Jaan Juurikas
June 29, 2024
Hey, Jaan here.
Before we start with the industry news, I’ll start out with a very, very happy note today.
Together, we have now planted over 1,000 trees on Earth!
This is wild.
To be exact, we’ve planted 1,031 trees by now, of which 350 are planted in Kenya, 242 in Madagascar, 187 in the USA, 177 in Mozambique, 63 in Ethiopia, 10 in Uganda, and 2 in Australia.
You can check out our whole forest on Ecologi here: ecologi.com/evuniverse. We use this platform just until I’m able to buy a plot of land to reforest, and plant the trees myself.
Each tree grove (click on any on the website) has a name of the member who funded it as well, so you can track where your trees were planted!
How did we achieve it all? Simple.
First, I decided we’ll fund 2 to 15 trees per every new EV Universe Pro member that signs up.
Second, we sometimes run ‘tree discounts’ where we offer even more trees planted per each new member, instead of $$ discounts. And sometimes, when I can, I match some of those myself to plant even more.
For example, for the latest launch offer of $299 lifetime membership, we’ve bumped it up to 30 🌲 planted per each new member.
Speaking of which… I messed up last week.
Some of you wrote to me that they couldn’t access the limited-time discount in North America, because the payment link gave an error. It worked in the EU, but not on your side of the pond. The error was on my side, not you. I’m sorry.
The platform I set this deal up on had an error which didn’t let you through. It is now fixed. Test out your darn links next time, Jaan.
While I found a workaround for everyone who wrote to me back then, I’ll also offer here one last chance on the now actually working page to upgrade to lifetime membership at a discount.
Here’s an unprompted comment from one of our long-time Pro members seeing this offer:
If you want to read more about what the lifetime deal is about, I wrote about a brief about it here.
My heartfelt thank you goes out to each and every member of ours. You are the sole reason we're able to make a continuously larger impact on this world, both EV adoption and tree-planting wise! Doesn’t matter if you’re on a free or a paid plan here, every single one of you counts.
Anyway, back to what you came here for.
I’ve got a lot of interesting insights for you today:
Deep Dive: Volkswagen invests in Rivian, plans joint venture;
EV Spotlight: Rimac-born Verne launches robotaxi;
Fisker files for bankruptcy;
6 EVs driven until they died;
World record driving through nine countries on a single charge;
…and more.
PS! As usual, our newsletter is better read online, so you could see all images and play videos instantly.
Words today: 3,807. Dig in!
Deep dive: VW Group invests in Rivian, partners for tech.
Oliver Blume (VW Group) <> RJ Scaringe (Rivian)
We often stumble on hints here and there about bigger partnerships incoming — but this one came as a surprise to most of us. RJ himself said:
“I think it's an accomplishment in its own right that this hasn't leaked, given the amount of work that's already happened ... and the number of people involved across our teams.”
Now this week, Rivian and VW Group partnered up (link to Rivian’s press release | link to VW Group’s). Although the headlines like to say VW Group invests $5B into Rivian, it isn’t quite so. Let’s take a closer look.
The quick details:
50-50 joint venture for SDVs will be established, to create next-generation software-defined vehicle (SDV) platforms to be used in both companies’ future EVs;
VW invests an initial $1B into Rivian, and “up to” $2B in 2025-2026.
VW invests another $1B into joint venture on inception, and $1B as a loan to it in 2026.
Rivian also held its Investor Day this week: (3h 42min video | 121-slide deck), so if you have time, you’ll learn nearly everything there is to know from these. Seriously. There’s so much to learn there. 🤯 You’ll find great visuals explanations on a lot of details.
RJ has also reiterated, that the company is on track for gross profit in Q4 this year. I’m no financial analyst, but looking at its current ~$1.5B-a-quarter cash burn even after the savings I’ll detail below, it seems that Rivian will need to bring more investment in to sustain itself through the next few years of vehicle rampup. Let’s see if and how it’ll happen.
And here’s why the $5B doesn’t really give 5 billion dollars to Rivian to grow.
The details details of the deal:
The first $1 billion will be provided to Rivian in the form of an unsecure convertible note that will become Rivian common stock (“subject to regulatory approval.”)
An additional investment in Rivian’s common stock of up to $2B is planned through $1 billion in 2025 and $1B in 2026.
Another $1B will be invested into the joint venture at its inception (Q4 2024), and the remainder $1B will be available to the JV as a loan in 2026.
The joint venture is expected to be formed in Q4 2024, and the first vehicles on the new platform are launched “in the second half of the decade”, which doesn’t really tell us anything does it. Yes, second half of the decade starts next year. Yes, that feels weird to me too.
By the way, what nobody seems to tell us out loud is that the joint venture is not a sure thing either. VW Group’s press release reads:
“The actual establishment of the joint venture depends on a series of different parameters, in particular, the final results of the further review of the technical feasibility of the integration of the E/E-architecture in vehicles of Volkswagen, the further negotiations between the parties as well as regulatory approvals. Against this background, a final decision on the establishment of the joint venture has not been made yet.”
The backstory we didn’t see
Earlier this year, via great reporting form Reuters and its three sources,
“a few camouflaged Audis arrived secretly from Germany early this year at a Palo Alto facility of Rivian, where some 30 engineers stripped the electronics and fitted them with Rivian’s harnesses and modules.”
Intense testing that followed was to determine whether future EVs from VW Group (parent of Audi) could benefit from Rivian’s technology.
RJ also said that his and Blume’s talks started when they met at Porsche’s experience center in Atlanta (reportedly in August last year).
"We just went deep, talking product and comparing notes on the things we like. There was immediate realization that we have some shared vehicle interests. Quickly that led to a serious conversation as to how can we look at working together."
[…]"To be able to see a Porsche on the road that has our technology in them, I couldn't be more excited.”
So why are they doing this together?
VW Group is already known for their trouble with in-car software. We’ve reported on that, and all of their Cariad software arm mess. Access to good EV technology isn’t easy and if they won’t go to Tesla… Rivian does make sense as one of the very few alternatives out there. VW’s deal with XPeng has been a step in the same direction.
Oh, and while the rest of their software game is still in ruins, they did announce their ChatGPT integration is now available in many of their models (backbone from Cerence)
Rivian has been recently perfecting its EV architecture, as we recently saw on the refreshed R1 platform launch (back here).
From the new User Interface design combined with 10x more compute power, to reducing the electronic control unit (ECU) count from 17 to 7. The new “zonal” architecture has shed around 60%, so around 1.6 miles of wiring from every vehicle. The weight was reduced by 44lbs (20kg)
 the 17 ECUs |  the 7 ECUs |
Rivian has also said it has simplified manufacturing by removing “100 steps from the battery-making process, 52 pieces of equipment from the body shop, and over 500 parts from the design of the new R1S & R1T”. They’ve eliminated 65 parts also in the body of the vehicle itself, converted 15 parts to steel, and reduced connection points by 1,471, and looks to have started utilizing high-pressure die casting (medium-size, not “gigacasting”) on the rear underbody.
All that has led to around 35% savings, and increased the rate of assembly on the manufacturing line by ~30%. (link)
The simplification and rewiring-to-less all reminds me of Tesla’s approach across the years, and it’s great to see it repeated in Rivian.
Sidenote — latest book from Walter Isaacson on Elon Musk is especially helpful in understanding the magnitude and difficulties that come with it. Musk walking the assembly line and “deleting” everything that they possibly could was truly eye-opening to read about.
So essentially, the partnership is “expected to allow both companies to combine their complementary strengths and lower cost per vehicle by increasing scale and speeding up innovation globally.”
“Not only is this partnership expected to bring our software and associated zonal architecture to an even broader market through Volkswagen Group’s global reach, but this partnership also is expected to help secure our capital needs for substantial growth.”
$RIVN: Rivian stock price jumped up by +54.10% at the highest point after the news, and has come back down to being up ~15% as I’m writing this, putting Rivian at an ~$14B market cap.
What about Scout Motors?
Scout is, after all, the exact competitor to Rivian once it comes out. Since the Rivian deal is connected to all of VW Group brands, Scout Motors would be one of them. Interestingly, Scott Keogh, doesn’t mention anything about the potential in its recent post about VW Group management visiting them. However, VW Group just comments:
“Our commitment towards Scout has not changed at all. Clear focus is now on taking the next steps in our joint venture plans with Rivian," says Christopher Hauss, VW Head of Strategy and Finance Communications
I just had to joke a bit on the news:
Blume must've been like:
"Damn Rivian made a better electric Golf than we ever could. Quick, call RJ."
Oh and seems I was on to something three months ago, too 🙂
Jaan’s quick final rant:
We’ve called out for long already, that EV revolution comes hand-in-hand with the digital revolution in the cars. Software Defined Vehicles, or however you call the actual smart EVs, are key to staying competitive.
That’s why the Chinese EVs, and Tesla, are mostly ahead of others right now — they’re mastering both at the same time. Let’s see if the legacy can catch up via deals like this.
AUTO & POLICY NEWS
Congrats to our member Trent, coming out of stealth mode with Flamingo Electric pontoons! We don’t talk about marine EVs here often, just because I couldn’t possibly fit it all in the newsletter. But this is a special occasion. :)
Flamingo Electric designs and manufactures high-performance premium electric boats from the ground up, with their proprietary propulsion, foil-assisted hull and in-house software. The first electric pontoon will be unveiled this summer and delivered late this year. Fully refundable $100 reservations can be done here.
Trent left us a quick comment, too:
We are excited to start sharing with the world the great work we’ve been doing. Lots more to come, stay tuned!
And I would be honored if any of my fellow members placed a reservation and got on the list. It’s only $100 and it’s fully refundable at any time!
If you’re an EV owner who lives in the countryside, consider taking part in this “Rural EV Study” survey by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) to get our voice out there: (link)
Fisker filed for bankruptcy. The decisive hearing in the Bankruptcy Court of Delaware has been set for July 16th. (link) Meanwhile, just yesterday, Fisker announced another recall for all Ocean vehicles (8,402 in US, 3806 in Europe and 513 in Canada) for outer door handles that may get stuck.
Chinese automakers are now demanding that China government responds to the EU’s Chinese EV tariffs with a 25% counter-tariff on large European ICE cars (with over 2.5 litres capacity). (link) Context: about 250k such cars were imported EU→China last year. Our deep dive on announced 17.4 to 38% EU → China EV tariffs from last week is here in case you missed it.
These people drove from China to Europe with NIO EVs, covering over 20,000km (12,427 miles). "Nine Chinese participants traveled through Kazakhstan, Russia, Georgia, and Turkey in NIO's EL8 and EL6 smart SUVs. They visited multiple NIO Houses across Europe." (link)
Related: NIO launches the EL8 in Europe, beginning sales in Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark. Fun fact, it’s called ES8 in China, but NIO lost in court to Audi in Europe for the name rights and thus went with EL8.
NIO currently has 43 battery swap stations in Europe, which have provided a cumulative 65,254 services. Along with some superchargers. In China, the company has one of the largest charging networks with over 3,863 charging stations and 22,933 charging piles, along with 2,432 Power Swap Stations.
EV SPOTLIGHT: Verne robotaxi
Rimac's robotaxi arm P3 Mobility is now called Verne (named after Jules Verne), and launched their first robotaxi design.
Context first: I’ve been watching and waiting for this launch for a few years now, since Mate Rimac casually dropped in an interview that he is interested in building an autonomous urban EV.
And last we talked about P3M was on a Pro Report in February, when the company raised a €100M ($107M) Series A funding round. They also received a €179.5M grant from European Commission last year. Per their own estimates, they need a total of €535M to bring its product to the roads.
P3M Verne was founded by
Mate Rimac (CEO of Rimac),
Adriano Mudri (designer of Rimac Nevera, now Chief of Design of Verne) and
Marko Pejković (previously CSO of Rimac, now CEO),
and Verne is co-owned by Rimac Automobili. They plan to bring an autonomous urban EV (“robotaxi”) to the market in 2026, and we now got some details:
The service will be first launched in Zagreb, Croatia (its HQ and where Rimac was born too) in 2026, and unlike with plenty of other startups, I would consider the likelihood of Verne actually delivering, high.
So just to be clear — if everything goes wight, you’ll be able to order the car to you from your phone, unlock it, ride in it, and leave it like it was in the destination, with no human intervention needed.
It has 2 seats. The extra-large seats enable 5 different levels of comfort.
No visible windshield wipers. No side-view mirrors.
They deeply integrated cameras, radars, short and long-distance-lidars, and their cleaning systems.”
60kWh battery for operating the whole day within the city
A 43-inch ultrawide display for entertainment, 17 speakers.
Between the seats, there is a Touchpad for interaction with the in-vehicle system, where you can easily adjust the vehicle’s settings.
Above you will be a rounded sunroof - the Halo ring.
The customer app seems to feature a way for customers to set the scent (yes I know) inside the vehicle, and set the ambient lighting color and temperature.
The app mockups
The (fully electric) vehicle is built on a completely new platform designed around safety and comfort, engineered solely for L4 autonomous driving using the Mobileye Drive autonomous platform. I do believe we’re not talking of drive-everywhere-FSD type of thing but rather pre-mapped city streets?
Infrastructure: in each city, there will be a specialized infrastructure called the “Mothership”, where the Verne vehicles will be inspected, maintained, cleaned, and charged daily. Verne is building its first production facility in Croatia.
After launching in Zagreb, Verne will target European cities for rollout starting with UK and Germany, and then Middle East. Verne says they’ve already signed agreement with 11 cities and are in talks with 30 more.
Verne has released 6 humorous short clips briefly explaining the car and infrastructure (here), and
Here’s Top Gear’s 25-minute video on Verne launch, walkaround, and talking with all three cofounders.
Here’s another video if you prefer Mat Watson of Carwow (20-min video).
I recommend the latter for comments like ‘so do you have a special Uber Driver setting where it’s constantly on and off the throttle to make you feel a bit sick.’
Elsewhere…
Lucid filed a USPTO trademark for “Lucid Ocean” (link). The timing seems about right with Fisker Ocean potentially not existing soon. Ocean fits in well with the current Lucid Air, and upcoming Lucid Gravity. Lucid has already recently also filed for trademarks of Lucid Space and Lucid Earth.
Meanwhile, Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson says 80 betas of Gravity are currently out testing and pre-production models are set to come out in the summer for crash testing and range testing.
Lucid Air was also used to set the world record of “most countries visited by a production EV in a single charge.” They managed to do nine countries in Europe.
Great reporting from our friend Alex. While we’re here, subscribe to his Lucid-focused newsletter, and/or his Rivian-focused newsletter.
Carwow just drove these 6 EVs until they died:
I put their results in a table for you:
Model | Range per WLTP (km) | Test range (km) | Deviation from WLTP |
Mercedes EQE | 611.55 | 574.54 | -6% |
Tesla Model 3 | 627.62 | 566.56 | -10% |
BYD Seal | 569.67 | 498.95 | -12% |
Porsche Taycan | 677.53 | 592.15 | -13% |
Polestar 2 | 653.33 | 534.99 | -18% |
BMW i5 | 582.98 | 476.96 | -18% |
PRODUCTION & SALES
Can you repair a giga casting? Turns out, yes you can. Here’s a video shared by our favorite gigacasting specialist, Luca Greco, showing the CEO John Sweigart of Evolve EV Specialists (an EV-exclusive collision repair and service center in the US), walking through the process of inspecting a gigacasting on a 2024 Tesla Model Y that was involved in a collision (6min):
Here’s a Rivian Amazon delivery van teardown and repair process (video), this is becoming one of my favorite YT channels quickly.
BATTERY, MINING & ♻️
📚️ Key resource: BloombergNEF’s EV Outlook 2024 (16-page executive summary pdf).
They — coincidentally some of my favorite EV analysts — also held a (free) webinar on June 26th, viewable here.
Great to see battery prices in China plummeting, with year-to-date for LFP cell prices at $53/kWh. The global average for 2023 they measured was $95/kWh.
As we called in a report earlier in the year, LFP is very clearly taking over the battery market, with LMFP (lithium manganese iron phosphate) capacity increasing and sodium-ion expected to start reaching scale too.
Northvolt is reportedly about to lose a $2B long-term supply contract of the battery cells by BMW set 4 years ago. (link) The reason, again reportedly, is because Northvolt is behind schedule.
Watch tip: Sandy & Tom from the Munro Live team open the Cybertruck Gen 2 4680 ‘Cybercells’ and compare them to Gen 1 (14-minute video).
It’s now also clear that Tesla has further reduced the amount of cobalt in the 4680 cell.
CHARGING
Shell is deploying Megawatt charging systems for trucks and ships, with the first installed in its Energy Transition Campus Amsterdam. (link)
ChargePoint is teaming up with LG Electronics to install more EV charging stations in the US, ChargePoint providing the software and LG the hardware. (link)
🇻🇳 Porsche and Charge+ plan to launch a charging network across the 1,700-km (1,056-mile) road between two largest cities Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. (link) I also somehow love it when we talk about charging network sizes in “miles” instead of kilowatts or station counts. There will be 17 charging sites with 180kW chargers built over the next three years. Ah darn still had to say it.
Context on Charge+: it currently has 2,000 EV chargers deployed across Singapore (largest CPO there), Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia. Plans 30k chargers by 2030.
Porsche 🤝 ChargePoint to integrate the network into the Porsche Charging Service (link)
Reading tip: a special report on the UK’s battle for accessibility at chargers, from Tom from at the Fast Charge (link).
Quote of the week
SEAT CEO, Wayne Griffiths, steps down as President of the Spanish Association of Car and Truck Manufacturers (ANFAC) because he says the Spanish gov is doing too little for electromobility (link in 🇪🇸 ):
“Last February, the President of the [Spanish] Government committed to reviewing the MOVES Plan and promoting charging infrastructure. These measures have not arrived. And that's why I'm disappointed, because now it's time to accelerate, not slow down.”
…amen, Wayne. Now is indeed the time to accelerate, not slow down. It is also in times like these we see the leaders who are truly about the future of sustainable transport, and who are just riding along the hype waves. Looks like Griffiths might be one of the former.
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See you next week,
— Jaan
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