Manufacturing of electrical Amazon supply vans on April 11, 2022 at Rivian’s plant in Regular, Ailing.
Michael Wayland / CNBC
Mercedes-Benz and Rivian mentioned Thursday they’re planning a three way partnership to construct massive, electrical business vans for each manufacturers.
The businesses plan to construct two totally different EV vans – one for every firm – on a shared meeting line, the businesses mentioned. The thought is to cut back prices for each corporations by sharing investments, expertise and suppliers.
They plan to construct a brand new EV-only manufacturing facility at an present Mercedes-Benz manufacturing unit website in Central or Japanese Europe, with manufacturing beginning in “a number of years,” the 2 corporations mentioned in an announcement.
“Mercedes‑Benz Vans has gained broad expertise in producing and launching eVans since 2010. Now we’re accelerating the transformation to a totally electrical product portfolio,” mentioned Mathias Geisen, head of Mercedes’ business van unit. “We’re sharing investments and expertise [with Rivian] as a result of we additionally share the identical strategic ambition: accelerating the electrification of the van market with sustainable and superior merchandise for our prospects.”
Whereas Mercedes-Benz has been constructing business autos for a few years, and electrical vans for over a decade, Rivian is a newcomer to the section. The Michigan-based EV startup began building EV delivery vans for Amazon earlier this yr, only a few months after it began production of its own upscale electric pickups and SUVs in its Illinois manufacturing unit.
Though the vans Mercedes and Rivian will in the end construct will probably be related, they will be totally different designs: Mercedes’ will probably be based mostly on its upcoming new EV van structure, set to debut in 2025; Rivian’s on the next-generation model of the sunshine van platform it developed for Amazon.
