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Summary
- Ford backed US based electric vehicle maker Rivian is reportedly in talks with the UK government to set up a factory in Bristol, worth up to £1 billion.
- The company is reportedly also considering other countries such as Germany and the Netherlands for setting up its first plant outside of the US.
- Rivian is expected to float an IPO in H2 2021, likely in September, to be valued at US$ 70 billion.
US based electric vehicle maker Rivian is in talks with the UK government to set up a plant outside of the US, according to some media reports.
The UK plant is expected to manufacture vehicles instead of batteries, suggesting Rivian plans to sell cars in the UK and EU markets in addition to the US.
Rivian’s Bristol plant
Rivian is considering setting up a 616-acre production facility in Bristol in the UK, which is expected to be worth up to £1 billion. The news manufacturing plant is also expected to have the backing of the UK government.
However, Rivian is said to be also considering other countries for setting up its first outside of the US plant, with Germany and the Netherlands submitting their proposals for developing Rivian’s EV model, the R1T, according to media reports.
Also Read: Investors Gung-Ho on Electric Vehicle Start-up Rivian
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Rivian’s IPO plans
Rivian’s is expected to float an initial public offering (IPO) in H2 2021, maybe by September. According to Bloomberg, the IPO is expected to be worth up to US$ 70 billion.
The car company’s IPO advisors include investment banking firms Goldman Sachs Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, and others.
Rivian raised up to US$ 2.65 billion recently from its latest funding round in July. The funding round was led by major companies such as e-commerce giant Amazon, legacy car manufacturer Ford and US based investment firm D1 Capital Partners.
Rivian has raised a cumulative total of up to US$ 10.5 billion since 2019.
Ford has so far invested up to US$ 500 million in Rivian as the legacy automaker plans to partner with Rivian to develop an electric powered vehicle. The Ford-Rivian collaboration is likely to be a pickup truck EV model.
It plans to launch two models this year, namely, a pickup truck and a sports utility vehicle. Rivian also started rolling out its 100,000 commercial delivery vans to Amazon this year, which the e-commerce giant had placed in the previous year.
Also Read: Hot electric car stocks for 2021
The EV maker’s US factory is based in Normal, Illinois, where the custom Amazon delivery vans and Rivian’s R1T and R1S models are produced.
Rivian is a market leader in the autonomous electric vehicles space. Its key competitors include Elon Musk owned EV giant Tesla (LON:0R0X), recently listed luxury EV maker Lucid, EV company Nikola and other players in the electric vehicle space.
