Ford exits Rivian board as Irvine-based EV-truck startup readies IPO

By Keith Naughton | Bloomberg

Ford Motor Co. has vacated its spot connected the committee of Rivian Automotive Inc. arsenic the Irvine-based electric-truck startup prepares to spell nationalist with an expected valuation of $80 billion.

Doug Power, Ford’s recently hired vice president of firm development, stepped down from Rivian’s committee past month. He had taken the spot held by Alexandra Ford English, the great-great granddaughter of laminitis Henry Ford, who near Rivian successful May erstwhile she became a manager astatine her namesake company.

Rivian conscionable began producing its highly anticipated R1T plug-in pickup, a rival to Ford’s upcoming electrical F-150 Lightning that is acceptable to debut adjacent spring. General Motors Co. and Tesla Inc. besides person electrical pickups coming successful 2022 arsenic the marketplace for those models heats up. Rivian besides has a lucrative declaration and fiscal backing from Amazon.com Inc., which has ordered 100,000 electrical transportation vans.

Related: Where did Rivian’s electrical motortruck travel from? It’s a long, messy road

Ford has invested much than $820 cardinal successful Rivian, giving it much than a 5% involvement successful the California-based automotive startup, according to documents Rivian filed successful beforehand of its nationalist offering. The 2 companies canceled plans past twelvemonth to jointly make an electrical conveyance for Ford’s Lincoln luxury line.

“This is inactive a strategical concern and we’re inactive moving with Rivian to fig retired a mode to perchance collaborate,” said Ian Thibodeau, a Ford spokesperson. “We had a committee spot arsenic Rivian was a backstage company, but arsenic they spell public, Ford won’t person a beingness connected the board.”

When Ford English joined Rivian’s board, she replaced Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s erstwhile automotive president who had near the institution abruptly successful a absorption shakeup. At the time, Rivian laminitis and Chief Executive Officer R.J. Scaringe praised Ford English for her “deep passionateness for mobility and electrification, and her transportation to Ford’s agelong household relation successful transportation.”

In different Rivian news, Amazon laminitis and erstwhile CEO Jeff Bezos shuttled passengers to the Blue Origin motorboat pad Wednesday successful a Rivian truck. It was the 2nd crewed formation into suborbital abstraction with a manifest including 90-year-old “Star Trek” histrion William Shatner, who became the oldest idiosyncratic to blast disconnected the planet. shuttled the passengers of Blue Origin successful a Rivian truck. The unit launched aboriginal Wednesday greeting connected a 10-minute thrust into abstraction and back.