A big cash infusion for the EV startup.
    • proudblond@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      I’m in the opposite camp. What are the reasons you don’t like Rivian? (I don’t like VW because we had not one, but two vehicles caught up in Dieselgate. They’re dead to me. Which is a shame because I really liked them.)

      • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.todayEnglish
        0·
        5 months ago

        Rivian comes off as a tech bro startup that has talked a big game but produced poor results, they’ve been advertising autonomous self driving since like 2015 or earlier. After shipments started, so did layoffs.

        VW has a long history of reliable manufacturing to high standards in Europe. They’ve had executives make claims that they would overtake Tesla as the world’s largest electric car company by 2025. Obviously, VW has been lagging hard on EV and won’t reach that goal, but if I had to pick a favorite car company it’s between them and maybe JEEP or KIA.

      • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        5 months ago

        For what it’s worth, all automakers had illegally high emissions (well apart from Tesla I guess). This is something I never see people bring up.

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_emissions_scandal

        VW wasn’t even close to being the worst for it (surprisingly they were among the least bad). They were just the first to be tested, and their leadership owned up to breaking the law immediately, meaning news media could happily call them out without fear of a libel/slander case.

        VW alone took the PR hit for an entire shady industry.

        • RayJW@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          0·
          5 months ago

          I mean they also own like half the industry. So, I don’t feel particularly bad for them to be honest.

    • Brkdncr@lemmy.world
      English
      0·
      5 months ago

      90% sure I saw this guy at a Margaritaville in Palm Springs. Looked exactly like him, had a lanyard and had some sort of assistant walking with him.

  • rishado@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    5 months ago

    I think this is fucking awesome. Complete win for all of us hoping for better and more affordable EVs.

    • Pringles@lemm.eeEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      Volkswagens EV platform is a mess because the CEO responsible for the pivot to EV within VW, was only allowed to implement it if he stopped being the CEO. So the next guy half assed the 80B$ pivot to EV, leading to VW being one of the worst performers amongst EV producing OEMs.

      So now they are on the market to buy whatever is needed to get them out of the hot mess they created themselves.

    • sushibowl@feddit.nlEnglish
      0·
      5 months ago

      VW is good at making cars, but bad at software. They’ve had to delay the introduction of new models (Golf, ID.3) because of software issues. Rivian has sort of the opposite problem: their production lines sit still often because of problems in the supply chain.

      Volkswagen has the expertise to solve Rivian’s production and supplier problems, and the cash they will need to survive and develop some cheaper models (the EV market is stagnating right now for a lack of budget options, and Rivian only sells trucks and SUVs). And they’re hoping Rivian software engineers can help them fix their software woes.