[akshayB]

Rivian have always struggled to bring down the cost of manufacturing their EVs. This is one of the biggest issues they have when you are making an EV battery & motor are 2 of the most important components of the car. In Rivians case they both are sourced and not done in-house. They got carried away making a luxurious car, custom screen setup (rather then leveraging Carplay or Android Auto) & good looking interior. If you want to be in a profitable in first place they should done total inverse, focus on making a great battery & motor like Tesla did and try to source out other things. This is one of the reasons why BYD and Chinese EV companies are destroying all their competition, they do majority of things in-house.

[jonhohle]

I’m. It sure why no one is producing a commodity “skateboard” platform for other companies to build their vehicles on. When Tesla showed off this design prior to the Model X (iirc), the idea of a company that could optimize batteries and motors to sell a blank canvas chassis seemed obvious.

[Moto7451]

That’s part of the idea behind VAG’s MEB platform and GM’s Ultium and the platforms based on it. Ford is using MEB and Honda is using Ultium platforms for the moment.

I think the issue with unibody cars is eventually you’re constrained on how much a base platform can be changed without the OEMs’ commitment to modifying the layout. The Honda Prologue and the Blazer EV have the same silhouette.

[simne]

> an EV battery & motor are 2 of the most important components of the car.

No. In free market not exist predefined constant priorities. Free market is dynamic system, which constantly change.

In 1960s and before, people buy any affordable machine, but in some niches preferred machines with good dynamics and (or!) with good fuel economy, so yes, good engine and transmission was important, and invested huge resources in them.

In 1980s most machines become very similar, and market demand for beautiful design and comfort, with good enough engine.

European geography is specific, it have big market of powerful 3rd party manufacturers of engines, new manufacturer just not have chances, but it's design market is not filled (nobody could name VAG designs bad, but they lack spice).

Also important thing, modern automobile is not simple thing, to fill all areas (engine, design, comfort), manufacturer need very large team. So to save design costs it is good to avoid some areas, for example to focus on comfort and interior.

So for Rivian is wise to TRY save costs and focus priorities on design/comfort and outsource EV battery & motor.

[simne]

BTW not all people know, BMW initially was not just focused on dynamics, but sacrificed comfort to save weight, and they was small manufacturer with moderate sales, even once considered to save costs on avoid US market.

I cannot prove, but looks that BMW sales grown magnitudes, after them made pivot, to dynamic-luxurious direction.

Similar to BMW history was with Porsche, their sales grown with Cayenne, which is hated by many fans.

And also important thing - Tesla with Musk have ambitions to be big manufacturer, but not all other companies have such ambitions.