Rivian gets £550 MILLION to bolster its Electric SUV and Pick-up plans

Rivian Automotive, which plans to deliver an electric SUV and pick-up to the market, secures £550 million in new investment led by Amazon.

Late last year, Rivian Automotive revealed its R1T electric pick-up and seven-seat R1S SUV, complete with impressive specs and performance. But, unlike many electric start-ups, Rivian has a bit more substance.

It’s taken them almost a decade to get to the point where they have real product to sell, so both the Rivian Pick-up and SUV are heading for production.

Built on a Skateboard Modular Chassis, the Rivian puts up to 180kWh of batteries under the floor, a 197bhp electric motor on each wheel and deliver 745bhp of usable power, good for a sub-3 second 0-62mph and a range of up to 400 miles.

Planned to go in to production in 2020, the Rivian will start from around £50k and be heading to the UK in 2021, and now it seems Rivian’s future is set to be even more rosy than we thought, as a new round of investment secures £550 million of funding, led by none other than Amazon.

Rivian CEO, RJ Scaring, said:

This investment is an important milestone for Rivian and the shift to sustainable mobility. Beyond simply eliminating compromises that exist around performance, capability and efficiency, we are working to drive innovation across the entire customer experience.

Delivering on this vision requires the right partners, and we are excited to have Amazon with us on our journey to create products, technology and experiences that reset expectations of what is possible.

Rivian aren’t saying who owns what after this new investment round, but they do say the investment deal will still leave them an independent company.