April 25, 2019—Ford Motor has agreed to invest $500 million in Rivian, an electric-car start-up that is widely seen as a potential rival to Tesla, according to The New York Times.
Rivian, based in Plymouth, Mich., plans to begin producing a pickup truck and a sport utility vehicle by the end of next year. Both will be powered by battery packs and are designed to be luxury vehicles that could appeal to many of the consumers drawn to Tesla and its upscale models.
Ford is counting on the partnership to accelerate its efforts to field a range of electric cars and trucks, while it also pushes to streamline operations, slash costs and increase profitability.
Ford and Volkswagen are discussing ways of pooling efforts to develop self-driving technology. G.M. is already working with Honda on autonomous vehicles. That effort also has financial backing from SoftBank, the Japanese technology giant.
