Transfer from: financial sector
Source of this article: Superelectric Laboratory
Volkswagen just spent a lot of money, 5 billion US dollars, equivalent to RMB 36 billion 300 million 。
The target of investment is the new force of American car making—— Rivian Automotive ——A strong opponent of Tesla.
This amount of money is huge at any time, and it can almost break the record of the largest single financing in the history of new car building in China.
According to the plan, the two sides will establish a new, equally controlled joint venture , share electric vehicle architecture and software.
After the news was announced, Rivian's share price was immediately Soared 50% According to this trend, the market value is likely to increase by nearly $6 billion.
Prior to this, Volkswagen shocked the investment action of the car circle, but still invested in Xiaopeng Auto, a new force in China. At that time, Volkswagen announced that it planned to invest 700 million dollars (about 5 billion yuan) in Xiaopeng Auto to jointly develop electric vehicles in China. After the completion of the transaction Holding about 4.99% of Xiaopeng Of the Company.
Now, it seems that VW has a bigger bet on Rivian's capital and deeper cooperation.
01
One needs money, the other needs technology
For Rivian, the investment of VW is very scarce. After all, in Musk's eyes, Rivian is an enterprise that will go bankrupt without money.
According to the statement of Volkswagen Group, it plans to invest US $5 billion in American electric vehicle start-up Rivian Automotive, and the two sides will establish a joint venture. The new company will The fourth quarter of 2024 Establishment.
This new company will build a technology platform based on the software and electrical architecture of Levian, develop the next generation pure electric vehicles and vehicle software, and then Volkswagen and Rivian will use this platform to produce their own products 。 Aobo Mu, CEO of Volkswagen, said that any brand under Volkswagen, including Audi and Porsche, can use new platforms and technologies. According to the plan, it is expected that after 2025, new models with joint venture technology will be launched.
This cooperation is win-win for both sides, and Volkswagen can, to a certain extent Ease the dilemma of its software department And solve the previous budget problems. Rivian also said that the price of the new car would be cheaper than the current price of $70000. He also said that he would authorize its existing intellectual property rights to the joint venture.
Interestingly, Obomo also said that the current cooperation between the two companies came from a meeting in the Porsche customer center and the love for cars.
Moreover, it is not surprising that the public can take a fancy to Rivian. Rivian has always been called "Tesla Killer" in the United States, and his strength has also been affirmed by Musk.
For Rivian, Musk once commented on X“ Their product design is not bad, but what really makes a car company profitable is to achieve mass production and positive cash flow. ”In other words, Rivian's hard power is not poor. What he lacks is money.
Although Rivian's total revenue in 2023 will be 4.434 billion US dollars (about 31.896 billion yuan), an increase of 167.4% compared with 2022, hitting a record high, it has actually been losing money all the time, with a total loss of 5.432 billion US dollars (about 39.076 billion yuan) in 2023.
Since its establishment in 2009, Rivian has never achieved quarterly net profit. In the first quarter of this year, Rivian lost another 1.5 billion dollars, and each vehicle lost nearly 39000 dollars.
It is worth mentioning that, because of lack of money, Rivian, who was unable to find a solution, recently made great efforts in the production process and reorganized its production process. More than 100 steps have been removed from the battery manufacturing process, 52 pieces of equipment have been removed from the body shop, and more than 500 parts have been removed from the design of flagship SUVs and pickups, resulting in a decline in production costs Over 35% 。 Fortunately, a discerning gold owner finally came.
According to the agreement between the two sides, this investment of $5 billion is not a one-time injection, but will be divided into three funds, Invest $1 billion immediately , holding Rivian's shares in the form of convertible bonds, which will be convertible into company shares after December 1 this year.
The remaining US $4 billion will be used to purchase Rivian's ordinary shares in 2025 and 2026 in two batches, each with US $1 billion, and then separately invest the remaining US $2 billion to establish a joint venture for direct investment when the joint venture was founded and loans available in 2026.
And the first $1 billion invested by Volkswagen can also quickly see the effect.
R.J. Scaringer, the founder and CEO of Rivian, said that this investment would provide Rivian with the necessary funds to launch a medium-sized SUV called R2, as well as the planned R3 crossover vehicle, and complete the construction of the Georgia factory. Because of lack of money, Rivian stopped the construction of the Georgia factory as early as March, saving more than 2 billion dollars.
And most importantly, it will also help Rivian achieves positive cash flow growth 。
02
What is the difference between Xiaopeng and Xiaopeng?
The most intuitive difference is that the investment amount is different.
Volkswagen invested 5 billion dollars in Rivian and 5 billion yuan in Xiaopeng, about seven times more than the latter. Of course, the US $5 billion also needs to be split. The US $1 billion is for holding shares in Rivian, and the US $4 billion is for additional investment to form a joint venture.
By comparison, the threshold of cooperation between Volkswagen and Rivian is obviously higher, and the terms offered by Xiaopeng are relatively attractive. Volkswagen invested 5 billion yuan in Xiaopeng, holding about 4.99% of Xiaopeng's equity. At present, Volkswagen invested 1 billion dollars in Rivian, and did not specify how much it held.
The public, on the other hand, points to similar results with different money.
For example, cooperation with Rivian focuses on Vehicle architecture and software The new joint venture company will be "equally controlled and owned by both parties, that is, both parties will form a new company at a ratio of 50:50.
The cooperation between Volkswagen and Xiaopeng is also characterized by stages. For example, Volkswagen first acquired 4.99% of Xiaopeng's Class A common shares in July last year, which belongs to Equity investment and strategic technical cooperation ； In February this year, the two sides signed a joint procurement plan. By April this year, the cooperation between the two sides had been further deepened, which is also the real purpose of Volkswagen—— technical cooperation The two sides will jointly develop based on the latest generation of electronic and electrical architecture of Xiaopeng Automobile and integrate it into Volkswagen's CMP platform in China. This platform is an electric vehicle architecture created by Volkswagen specifically for the Chinese market, which is developed locally and for the Chinese market A-class mainstream market entry model 。
In a word, the cooperation between Volkswagen and Xiaopeng is mainly aimed at the Chinese market. In addition to jointly developing two Volkswagen brand B-class electric vehicles based on Xiaopeng G9 platform, the products also cover the A-class mainstream market.
If the previous cooperation between Volkswagen and Xiaopeng was a compromise to the market, the cooperation with Rivian was deliberate.
The joint venture between Volkswagen and Rivian is more purposeful. First of all, in the U.S. large SUV and pickup market, Volkswagen does not occupy a large share, and its electric SUV ID4 is not warm. Cooperation with Rivian can take the opportunity to have a place in this market segment.
Moreover, Volkswagen's new brand Scout It will also be equipped with the software of Rivian. Scout, a brand new brand, is mainly aimed at the two directions of pure electric off-road vehicles and pure electric pickups, and its first vehicle is a pure electric hard off-road vehicle.
Regardless of brand positioning or model, this is very consistent with Rivian.
As planned, Scout will soon release its first model. At present, this brand is building a factory in South Carolina to assemble pickups and SUVs with the same positioning as the Rivian model. The factory plans to End of 2026 Put into production 。
Volkswagen also has a high expectation of Scout, which is bound to conquer the North American market. Therefore, Scout is not only a new automobile brand, but also an important part of Volkswagen Group's strategic layout in the American market. Its importance is self-evident.
At this time, Volkswagen spent a lot of money to invest in Rivian, apparently paving the way for Scout. Moreover, the software capability of Volkswagen is really worrying. Its software department, Cariad, has been struggling. At present, the new power players in the United States are not as selective as China.
Even though Musk thinks that his life is not long, Rivian still has a great help to the public by virtue of the money capacity of the public. That is, compared with Xiao Peng, Rivian spent a little more money.
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