April 25, 2019—Ford has announced a $500 million investment in Rivian, an EV startup, and plans to build an electric vehicle using the company's technology, The Verge reports. Ford chief executive officer, Jim Hackett, said the new vehicle won't affect the two additional EVs that Ford has been developed.
Ford's purchase of the company is centered around the ability to use Rivian's "flexible skateboard platform," which includes following: the battery pack, the electric drivetrain, and the electrical architecture used to startup's two EV's arriving in late 2020—the R1T electric pickup truck, and the R1S SUV, The Verge reports.
Ford declined to specify which vehicle will be built on Rivian's platform.
"Ford won't say what kind of vehicle it will build, only that it doesn't affect the Electric F-150 and Mustang-style Crossover," Ford said in a statement, the publication reports.
“We have a lot of experience in electrification,” Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s president of automotive operations, said on the call, according to The Verge. “But there’s also a lot we don’t know, and there’s also things we can still learn. We don’t have all the answers, and we don’t pretend to.”
