Ford Partners with Rivian on Electric Truck

Ford Motor Co. has agreed to invest $500 million in Rivian Automotive LLC and partner with the Plymouth, Mich.-based startup on an electric truck.

As part of the deal, Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s president of automotive, will join the startup’s board of directors. The agreement comes just weeks after Rivian reportedly turned down an investment offer from General Motors Co. for the sake of remaining independent.

Ford will use Rivian’s “skateboard” platform to carry an all-new Ford-badged truck. The vehicle will be in addition to Ford’s existing EV plans, which include a Mustang-inspired crossover vehicle and an all-electric variant of the F-150 fullsize pickup. The carmaker has committed to spend $11 billion on EVs through 2022.

Rivian will continue with plans to independently launch its own EVs—the R1T pickup and R1S SUV— by the end of 2020. Those vehicles will be produced at the former Mitsubishi Motors Corp. factory in Normal, Ill., which Rivian acquired two years ago for $16 million.

The startup previously landed about $1.2 billion in funding from Amazon, Saudi vehicle distributor Abdul Latif Jameel, Standard Chartered Banks and Sumitomo Corp.