Mercedes-Benz, Rivian associate on EV industrial vans in Europe

Mercedes-Benz and Rivian stated Thursday they’re planning a three way partnership to construct massive, electrical industrial vans for each manufacturers.

The businesses plan to fabricate two completely different EV vans – one for every automaker – on a shared meeting line, they stated. The thought is to cut back prices for each corporations by sharing investments, know-how and suppliers.

They plan to construct a brand new EV-only manufacturing facility at an current Mercedes-Benz manufacturing unit web site in Central or Japanese Europe, with manufacturing beginning in “just a few years,” the 2 corporations stated in an announcement.

“Mercedes‑Benz Vans has gained broad expertise in producing and launching eVans since 2010. Now we’re accelerating the transformation to a totally electrical product portfolio,” stated Mathias Geisen, head of Mercedes’ industrial van unit. “We’re sharing investments and know-how [with Rivian] as a result of we additionally share the identical strategic ambition: accelerating the electrification of the van market with sustainable and superior merchandise for our clients.”

Whereas Mercedes-Benz has been constructing industrial automobiles for a few years, and electrical vans for greater than a decade, Rivian is a newcomer to the section. The California-based EV startup started manufacturing EV supply vans for Amazon earlier this 12 months, just some months after it began manufacturing of its personal upscale electrical pickups and SUVs in its Illinois manufacturing unit.

Though the vans Mercedes and Rivian will in the end construct will possible be comparable, they will be completely different designs: Mercedes’ might be primarily based on its upcoming new EV van structure, set to debut in 2025; Rivian’s on the next-generation model of the sunshine van platform it developed for Amazon.

Correction: This story has been up to date to right that Rivian relies in California.