It's now clear what Ford Motor Company's investment in Rivian bought: an all-electric Lincoln crossover SUV.
On Wednesday, Lincoln confirmed it will build an electric luxury crossover SUV on Rivian's skateboard EV platform.
Lincoln said its first fully electric model will be a crossover SUV that joins the Corsair, Aviator, and Navigator in the lineup, but the company did not specify when. Previous reports have pegged the launch for 2022 or 2023.
The automaker highlighted that its electric model will feature the latest technology, including connectivity. This jibes with Rivian plans, as the start-up automaker is developing a clean-sheet platform set to feature advanced driver-assist functions to lay the groundwork for self-driving cars in the future.
Rivian's EV platform is modular, thus it could scale size-wise to fit Lincoln's needs. Whether Lincoln's Rivian-based SUV is the size of the Rivian R1S SUV or not, it could feature the same 105-, 135-, and 180-kwh battery pack options with anywhere from 200 to 400 miles of range.
To date, Rivian has said it designed its batteries to handle fast-charging rates of up to 160 kilowatts, though that could change by the time the Rivians, and the Lincoln, launch.
Ford is also developing an electric F-150 pickup truck in-house on its own platform.
Last February, Amazon provided the majority of a $700 million investment in Rivian, and Amazon later ordered 100,000 electric vans from the startup. Ford's investment in Rivian began with $500 million last April. Just before the holidays in December, Rivian secured another $1.3 billion in funding from Amazon, Ford, and investment management group BlackRock.
