Toronto, Ontario — In this weekly Tuesday Ticker, Rivian reportedly announces more production pauses at manufacturing plants, while Magna and General Motors make plans for an automotive software marketplace.
Rumours at Rivian
Rivian is reportedly soon pausing production at its Normal, Illinois, manufacturing plant, according to a report from Drive Tesla Canada, which obtained information about a private email sent to customers last Friday.
The email sent to customers noted that the OEM was no longer accepting custom configuration orders in anticipation of a factory shutdown for retooling and improvements. It did not detail what was changing; Drive Tesla Canada suspected in its report that it was related to battery packs and other internal updates with aims to reduce production costs.
Shares of Rivian dropped about three percent from Thursday’s close to Friday morning. As of 10 a.m. ET Monday, shares of Rivian traded at US$10.72 per share, down 3.9 percent in the last five days.
A Magna-backed marketplace
Magna, General Motors and tech and consulting company Wipro Limited are teaming up to develop a “B2B sales platform for buying and selling automotive software,” the companies announced earlier this month.
The platform, called SDVerse, aims to revolutionize the automotive software sourcing and procurement process by providing a matchmaking platform for buyers and sellers of embedded automotive software.
General Motors holds a 46 percent stake in SDVerse; Magna and Wipro each own 27 percent stake.
“Unlike the traditional captive software development approach, SDVerse focuses on connecting automotive software buyers and sellers through a transparent and efficient digital platform. Sellers can list their software’s features and attributes, while buyers can easily search and explore the available software products through a comprehensive catalogue,” wrote Magna in its press release.
According to Magna, sales and purchases can be connected directly through the platform. SDVerse is currently in development and expected to feature hundreds of automotive software products, and participants from across the automotive value chain are invited to join, the company added. A launch partner group is already in place.
“The market for automotive software is expected to nearly double this decade, potentially outpacing the growth of software development talent pools” said Harmeet Chauhan, Global Head Wipro Engineering Edge, Wipro Limited. “The current paradigm for software sourcing will likely not be able to overcome this growing gap without sacrificing both profitability and the auto industry’s aspirations for software-defined vehicles. SDVerse addresses these pain points, offering a wide range of benefits across the industry.”
