Ford and Rivian cancel joint EV project

American manufacturers Ford and Rivian have announced they will not be jointly developing an electric vehicle, despite the Blue Oval investing heavily in the upstart.

Despite holding a 14.4 per cent stake in Rivian and investing US$7.5 billion (AU$10.1bn) in the company, Ford has decided to go its own way with its EV development.

As reported by Automotive News, Ford CEO Jim Farley said the company's EV position now is far stronger than when it first invested in Rivian, having recently announced huge investments in research and development facilities.

3

Rivian's R1T

"Right now, we have growing confidence in our ability to win in the electric space," Farley told Automotive News.

"When you compare today with when we originally made that investment, so much has changed: about our ability, about the brand's direction in both cases, and now it's more certain to us what we have to do.

"We want to invest in Rivian — we love the future as a company — but at this point we're going to develop our own vehicles."

3

The Ford F-150 Lightning Pro

Farley has been a supporter of Ford's move towards electrification, but has also become aware of the pressure the Blue Oval faces from EV startups, having recently told Ford employees it should look to the Tesla Model 3 as an example of how strong the electric market is.

With the first Rivian R1T pickup truck rolling off the production line in September, the upstart beat Ford to produce the first electric truck in the United States – debuting well before the Blue Oval's planned F-150 Lightning which is set to launch next year.

Earlier this month, Rivian debuted on the Nasdaq stock exchange, putting itself into the top-five of the world's most valuable vehicle manufacturers, while also posting one of the biggest initial public offerings on record – peaking at a value of US$120.5 billion (AU$165.2bn).