Just three months after saying a partnership with Mercedes to fabricate industrial electrical vans in Europe, Rivian now says its pausing these plans to focus on its personal enterprise. “At this point in time, we believe focusing on our consumer business, as well as our existing commercial business, represent the most attractive near-term opportunities to maximize value for Rivian,” it stated in a press release. 

The firm stated it is going to “no longer pursue the memorandum of understanding with Mercedes-Benz,” however the parting seems to be amicable and probably not everlasting. “Exploring strategic opportunities with the team at Rivian in the future remains an option, as we share the same strategic ambition: accelerating the EV adoption with benchmark products for our customers,” Mercedes-Benz’s head of vans Mathias Geisen stated in a press release. It added that Rivian’s choice would not change its industrial electrification technique.

Rivian has seen some setbacks up to now yr. Despite being among the best of funded EV startups, the corporate introduced final summer time that it might lay off six p.c of its workforce in an effort to chop prices. Earlier, it revealed that it might hike costs on automobiles already on pre-order, earlier than backing off and making use of the will increase solely to future orders. On the plus facet, its R1S SUV and R1T pickup EVs have typically obtained good evaluations.

Other EV startups have additionally run into issues this yr as a consequence of inflation, increased rates of interest and different points. Arrival, for one, was compelled to place its electrical bus and automobile tasks on maintain as a consequence of struggles with money. And Faraday Future delayed the launch of its first EV, the FF91, additionally over money stream points.