The Volkswagen Group sold more cars in Poland in just five months this year than Rivian sold globally throughout the whole of 2023.
The American EV start-up lost the equivalent of £1.16 billion in the first quarter, while the German giant made a profit of £3.9bn.
Rivian’s stumbles to create a credible car company have already knocked out one prominent investor in Ford, but that hasn’t stopped Volkswagen agreeing to invest $5 billion.
Ford thought that Rivian’s EV skateboard platform would be the key feature that could help electrify its Lincoln premium brand, but that proved a false dawn amid the hype around start-ups in the early days of the pandemic.
