Ford's intention was to crush Rivian?

[Sgt Beavis]

Really? Why would Ford want to invest in Rivian? I can't see it. Money, sure they can pull out of Rivian or not, doubt that is a difficult decision in terms of financing. But why are they in?

The original strategic decision was to leverage the R1 platform for Ford and Lincoln products. That was then scaled back to a Lincoln product. Jim Farley put the kabash on that when Ford decided to go all in on EVs. Again, the original strategic move was under the previous CEO, who frankly wasn't qualified to run Ford.

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[MIG]

Plans change; goals change. What may have been a good idea three years ago may not make business sense today.

 

[moosehead]

Seems as though it was a win-win.

Ford even at today's depressed share price has at minimum a $1.5B gain, and learned from an EV start up all things battery, design, customer, and start up lines.

Rivian raised a ton of cash on Ford's credibility and perhaps learned a thing or two themselves. Yea, still learning.

 

[zipzag]

Seems as though it was a win-win.

Ford even at today's depressed share price has at minimum a $1.5B gain, and learned from an EV start up all things battery, design, customer, and start up lines.

Rivian raised a ton of cash on Ford's credibility and perhaps learned a thing or two themselves. Yea, still learning.

No they didn't. What Ford learned was that Jim Hackett should have never been made CEO of a car company.

 

[Speedrye]

I don't think any of the major automotive players, including Ford, planned on going all in on EVs a few years ago. Most were paying lip service to the idea, and some had a more realistic timeline of moving from ICE to EV. Suddenly, it became the cool thing to do to promise going all EV in whatever unattainable timeline, so most promised that. I think Ford was investing in Rivian, because it both saw potential profit, and potential technology sharing while not having to do as much in house development of EVs. Then, the competition started the one-upmanship and keeping-up-with-the-Joneses games...

 

[R1Sky Business]

Let's welcome the competition

 

[av8or]

It seems they may have had good intentions in the beginning to be partners in a EV truck platform, but when that fell apart Ford took what EV and platform information they’d learned and went home. Next thing ya know they are making a independent suspension EV truck for the first time ever, and they have a wildly successful new Maverick truck that has some resemblance in design to the r1t. puzzling.

 

[R1Sky Business]

It seems they may have had good intentions in the beginning to be partners in a EV truck platform, but when that fell apart Ford took what EV and platform information they’d learned and went home. Next thing ya know they are making a independent suspension EV truck for the first time ever, and they have a wildly successful new Maverick truck that has some resemblance in design to the r1t. puzzling.

Surely RIVIAN anticipated this.... trading information for credibility

 

[SASSquatch]

2022... the year Jeff became more likable than Elon, and in Amazon we trust to keep a smaller company going to provide competition to Tesla.

Pay the man!

Bezos is going to prop up RIVIAN as long as it takes to be a long term competitor to Tesla. You think Capt. Kirk and the boys (and girls) rolling to their launchpad to beat Musk to space in an R1T was by accident??

 

[rocketscientist]

I don't think any of the major automotive players, including Ford, planned on going all in on EVs a few years ago. Most were paying lip service to the idea, and some had a more realistic timeline of moving from ICE to EV. Suddenly, it became the cool thing to do to promise going all EV in whatever unattainable timeline, so most promised that. I think Ford was investing in Rivian, because it both saw potential profit, and potential technology sharing while not having to do as much in house development of EVs. Then, the competition started the one-upmanship and keeping-up-with-the-Joneses games...

Yes. Ford, others, would never have gone electric had Tesla not made it cool. Competition is on. I'm betting on Rivian but the big players will play mean. No doubt. Go Rivian.

 

[rocketscientist]

Pay the man!

Bezos is going to prop up RIVIAN as long as it takes to be a long term competitor to Tesla. You think Capt. Kirk and the boys (and girls) rolling to their launchpad to beat Musk to space in an R1T was by accident??

You can't make this stuff up. There is a movie here.

 

[rocketscientist]

Surely RIVIAN anticipated this.... trading information for credibility

Exactly.

 

[R1Sky Business]

Exactly.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out, wait.....

 

[E.S.]

... and they have a wildly successful new Maverick truck that has some resemblance in design to the r1t ...

You think that's the only thing Ford took away with the cancelled collab? Take a closer look at the new Lightning's design. You'll find a few similarities there too.

 

[mini2nut]

Fortunately Rivian has the financial backing of at least two corporate big whales, Amazon and T. Rowe Price.

The R1S and R1T are going to be the low volume flagship models for Rivian similar to how the Model S is for Tesla. As we know, all new orders after March 1st will be subject the new price increases that will decrease sales even more. The market for $90k BEV pickups is only so large.

Volume sales will follow with lower price point models that are not being revealed to the public yet. Their future vehicle portfolio is rumored to include a BEV Wrangler/ Bronco fighter and may be assembled at the future Georgia assembly plant.

I predict that the “R2T” compact SUV vehicle will be wildly successful and will put added pressure on Stellantis and Ford to release BEV versions of the Wrangler and Bronco models.

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