Mercedes and Rivian will produce electric vans in Europe

Mercedes and Rivian will produce electric vans together in Europe. On Thursday 8 September, the two car manufacturers announced that they had signed a memorandum of understanding for a joint venture to open a new production plant for electric vans in Europe in the next few years, in Poland, Hungary or Romania. At the moment the most popular option for leasing appears to be the Hungarian Kecksemet plant.

The joint venture – which will be 50-50 – provides for the construction of two types of vans, both large in size. The first will be developed according to a new architecture set up by Mercedes which has been called Van.Ea. The second will instead be built on the basis of Rivian’s proprietary technology, Rivian Light Van. In both cases, the vehicles will be fully electric. The memorandum of understanding just signed is also expected to represent only the first of several collaborations that the two companies intend to pursue in the coming months.

As an electric van company it has come to be worth more than Volkswagen and General motors

The capitalization of Rivian, a Californian company listed on the stock exchange since last November 10, is the third after Tesla and Toyota in the space of a week. But mass production has yet to begin

For Mercedesthe agreement falls under a broader review of its commercial strategies, with which it aims to abandon endothermic engines as soon as possible. In this sense, the German company has already started collaborations on the production of electric vans with car companies such as Renault And Nissanand several times over the last few months it has expressed its intention to completely renounce internal combustion engines by 2025.

For Rivian – which instead was born as an automotive company specialized in the production of electric vehicles – it will be the first production plant in Europe after having operated only operated in the United States. The deal comes at a rather pivotal time for Rivian, whose largest shareholder is Amazon. In recent months, the company has struggled to maintain its level of production at its Illinois factory due to increases in raw material costs.

“We have a lot of experience when it comes to industrializing vans – said Mercedes CEO Mathias Geisen – but Rivian brings a lot of new tech skills when it comes to electric mobility. It’s the right combination for the deal to be beneficial to both of us“The joint venture is expected to be fully operational by 2025.