Overview
- Engineering prototypes of Volkswagen’s ID.1 are under test at RV Tech facilities in Palo Alto and Irvine, with a European launch planned for 2027.
- RV Tech will conduct winter testing in early 2026 on reference vehicles from Volkswagen, Audi and Scout to validate the shared architecture in harsh conditions.
- Headcount at the joint venture has surpassed 1,500 across the U.S., Canada, Sweden, Serbia and Germany, including a new site in Berlin.
- Executives say the software stack could be licensed to other automakers as a potential industry “reference OS,” after initial rollouts in Rivian’s R2 and the first VW models.
- Rivian has received two $1 billion tranches from Volkswagen with additional funding expected in 2026, and VW says the architecture could later support combustion models even as current work focuses on BEVs.