Mercedes and Rivian want to build electric vans together

Vienna A new, unconventional alliance is formed in the highly competitive business with vans. The top dog in the profession, the Stuttgart car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz, will in future cooperate with the American newcomer Rivian. Both companies announced this on Thursday and signed a letter of intent.

Specifically, the companies want to jointly produce large, fully electric vans such as the E-Sprinter from the middle of the decade. For this purpose, a completely new plant is to be built at an existing Mercedes location in “Central/Eastern Europe”, which the groups have not specified.

“We want to work as efficiently as possible on a common production line,” said Mathias Geisen, head of the van division at Mercedes, to the Handelsblatt. From painting to logistics to assembly, the structures are likely to be standardized in order to reduce costs.