Less than six months after raising a $2.5 billion funding round, electric vehicle startup Rivian Automotive Inc. on Tuesday said that it has secured yet an additional $2.65 billion from investors. 

T. Rowe Price led the latest round with participation from Amazon.com Inc.’s Climate Pledge Fund and others. The Climate Change Fund is a $2 billion investment vehicle launched by the online retail giant last year to back companies developing sustainable technologies. Amazon also participated in several of Rivian’s earlier funding rounds.

Plymouth, Michigan-based Rivian is preparing to launch two electric vehicles for the consumer market with a top range of more than 300 miles per charge. The vehicles will provide partial autonomous driving features via an artificial intelligence system, Driver+, that the startup says can perform tasks such as changing lanes. At the same time, Rivian is working to deliver 100,000 commercial delivery vans for Amazon as part of a deal the companies announced in late 2019. 

Developing consumer and commercial vehicles in parallel is a challenging endeavor not only from a cost standpoint but also as far as engineering complexity is concerned. To simplify development, Rivian has opted to base all its vehicle models on a common “skateboard” chassis. The skateboard combines the wheels, battery pack, suspension and other key components in a single platform that can be customized for different types of automobiles.

Rivian’s customizable chassis could eventually become a revenue driver in its own right. The startup has already indicated that it could make its skateboard technology available to other automakers, inking a deal with Ford Motor Co.’s Lincoln Motor unit last year to jointly develop a vehicle based on the chassis. The companies later canceled the project, but said they plan to develop an alternative vehicle using Rivian’s technology.

The $2.6 billion round the startup announced on Tuesday will put it in a stronger position to pursue more auto industry partnerships. Additionally, the investment should make it easier for Rivian to finance the expansion of its manufacturing capacity as it gears up to start shipping vehicles to customers. The company is aiming to launch both its consumer vehicles in 2021 and plans to start producing the delivery vans ordered by Amazon before the end of the year as well. 

“The support and confidence of our investors enables us to remain focused on these launches while simultaneously scaling our business for our next stage of growth,” Rivian Chief Executive Officer RJ Scaringe said in a statement.

Enhancing its vehicles’ autonomy features will likely be among the items on the startup’s agenda as it pursues that next growth stage. Major automakers such as General Motor Co. are actively investing in autonomous vehicles, while some industry players are even considering to launch their own driverless taxi services. The changes that the technology could bring to the auto sector in the coming years are set to impact not only established players but also new market entrants such as Rivian. 

Photo: Rivian