Could Rivian Become a Design Consultancy for Other Automakers?

• Rivian has lent its design and engineering know-how to other companies, such as Amazon and electric bike-maker Also.
• Rivian recently entered into a joint venture with Volkswagen to share vehicle architectures and other technologies.
• Could this position Rivian to become a sort of consultancy? We sat down with the company's chief design officer to learn more.

In addition to its own R1T, R1S and forthcoming R2 and R3 models, electric carmaker Rivian has designed and manufactured a number of other products. It created a full-size electric delivery van, the EDV, for Amazon. It built an e-assist bicycle and bike-based urban cargo delivery vehicle. It's also spun out all manner of accessories, from camping kitchens to rooftop tents, for its core vehicles. And it is now entering into a joint venture with Volkswagen to share its integrated vehicle architecture and other technologies.

All of this is beginning to make Rivian look a lot like the semi-independent creative consultancies — such as BMW Designworks, or Porsche Design — spun out from other automakers' corporate webs.

“Our CEO, RJ [Scaringe], is always seeking synergies for Rivian's vertically integrated network architecture and software systems, looking for ways to apply them across fresh form factors,” says Rivian chief design officer Jeff Hammoud in a one-on-one conversation with Edmunds. “The challenge is, how can it have its own different expression for another brand versus Rivian?”

Hammoud uses the Amazon van as an example. "It was designed specifically for Amazon. And if you look at it, it doesn't look like a Rivian. But someone could sort of see how the company that did one is the same company that did the other. So that was something where we actually played more of a role of providing a service for a company. And that's where we're trying to make sure that there's a connection through everything we do, but not so literal."

Hammoud suggests that the same familial quality holds true for the e-assist bikes, which feel classic and slightly retro but also fresh and forward-facing. This is much like the automaker's take on the pickup and SUV forms it's already produced, which harken back to classic Scout and Range Rover forms, and especially the forthcoming R3 hatchback, which nods to edgily angular designs from the 1980s like Giorgetto Giugiaro's Lancia Delta and Mk1 VW Golf.

“If we wanted it to look like a Rivian, we would have branded it as a Rivian,” he says. “So it was intentionally done in a way to make them related but separate.”

It's in the forthcoming products from the brand's joint venture with the Volkswagen Group where this emergent consultancy-esque role will perhaps be put to its greatest test. The initiative is intended to develop new, technologically sophisticated architecture and software platforms for a suite of forthcoming vehicles for both Rivian and VW. But while the underpinnings will be based on Rivian's advanced know-how in the EV category, those vehicles produced under the VW Group need to feel adherent to their individual brands.

"That's interesting because, then, what defines that brand identity?" Hammoud asks. "You could say, 'Well they're just sharing the underlying architecture.' But look at companies like Google, where you have examples of Android in many different platforms. Our question is: How do you create some of that, and what does it mean to aid in the design of that?"

This could get concerning when and if this cross-collaboration potentially becomes muddled and lacks proper differentiation. But Hammoud and his team feel aware of this dilemma. "We wouldn't want a Rivian to feel like a Porsche or a Volkswagen or an Audi, or vice versa. If we're the technology behind it, depending on how you skin it and how you change it, it can really change the experience. So that shouldn't be something that people should really feel," Hammoud says. "But that goes into more of a discussion of how does Rivian, as a brand, say, 'Actually, this is something we're happy with sharing.' Where, in contrast, this is ours."

Since Rivian handles so much of its design — both aesthetic and technological — in-house, in contrast to other automakers, it could be challenging to apply or interpret its proprietary platforms, experiences and sensibilities for other brands. But Hammoud insists that, realistically, the opposite is true for him and his team.

"It's more like sky's the limit for us," he says. "The harder part is how to find time to do all these things. How do we make the right decisions knowing that we have limited resources? How do we really pick the right things to do? And when?"