Rivian receives another $1B from Volkswagen

Winter testing is over for ALL VW ID1the first car under the agreement between Rivian and the Volkswagen Group to have the EV maker’s software and electric infrastructure. This is not just a step forward in getting the car into the hands of customers; it also opens another $ 1 billion investment from the Volkswagen Group to Rivian.

About $750 million is coming in as investment funds. The other $250 million is either debt or convertible debt, depending on what Volkswagen Group offered to Rivian for evaluation. (The company has not made this clear.)

The German auto giant has already invested more than $3 billion in Rivian as part of the deal. And there’s more to come. Rivian will be able to borrow up to $1 billion from the Volkswagen Group starting in October. Rivian also received an additional $460 million from Volkswagen after the first car sold using the company’s technology. All told, the deal could be worth $5.8 billion to Rivian.

The big winter payment has been made a few months before Rivian started selling the R2 SUV, which founder and CEO RJ Scaringe said was “probably the most important thing we’ve launched so far.” Rivian is working very fast scaling of R2 production and sales.