Rivian (RIVN) clashes with Bosch in new legal battle over EV motors
EV maker Rivian (RIVN) is locked in a new legal battle with the world’s largest auto parts supplier, Bosch. Both sides traded lawsuits against each other as Rivian moves in its own direction.
In 2019, Rivian and Bosch signed an agreement to supply e-motors for its electric models, the R1T and R1S.
According to Crain’s Detroit Business, the two traded lawsuits after the relationship soured. With Rivian now producing its own e-motors, Bosch claims the EV maker was “secretly” planning to replace its product.
Rivian shot back, saying it was “choked off” by Bosch with insufficient supply, causing production issues and “cataclysmic” damage to the brand and its finances.
According to case files in Wayne County Circuit Court, the legal battle started in July after Bosch sued Rivian over breach of contract. On the same day, Rivian filed a lawsuit against the supplier, claiming breach of contract and damage to the brand’s value.
Bosch claimed the EV maker refused to pay reimbursements worth $204 million after Rivian began building its own e-motors.
Rivian blamed Bosch for its production woes that hampered output and led to only 24,337 vehicles being built in 2022.
Rivian and Bosch trade lawsuits as legal battle heats up
Bosch invested millions to revamp its plant in Germany as it geared up for e-motor production. It also established a new dedicated production line at its South Carolina plant (which I was invited to tour) to build electric motors for Rivian.
“Given these significant investments and that Rivian was an electric vehicle startup that had never manufactured vehicles before, Rivian contracted to reimburse Bosch for all its unamortized costs should Rivian cancel the program early,” Bosch’s lawsuit read (via Crain’s Detroit Business).
Rivian canceled the contract in September 2023, according to Bosch, as it developed its own e-motors. Meanwhile, the company was preparing to fulfill its 200,000-unit supply agreement for 2024.
After Rivian introduced its in-house Enduro drive units, Bosch claimed the EV maker was “secretly” planning to replace its business despite months of silence on its future plans.
“While Rivian’s choice to cut costs and develop a new product may be understandable, Rivian cannot simply ignore its contractual duties to reimburse Bosch…” the lawsuit read. Bosch also said Rivian “refused” assistance and treated it as “a competitor for e-motors and e-axles.”
Rivian fires back
“At the very heart of Rivian’s vehicle design were four electric motors,” Rivian’s lawsuit said. “To supply these mission-critical, custom motors, Rivian turned to the largest and most established supplier of automotive parts in the world: Bosch.”
Rivian’s lawsuit added, “That was a mistake,” as the supplier sent over “unqualified personnel” and invested “insufficient resources” in its program.
As a result, Bosch failed to live up to its commitment, supplying just 101,000 EV motors in 2022, less than half of the requirement.
The lawsuit claimed Bosch “choked off” Rivian’s production lines during one of its most crucial moments, damaging the brand and its finances.
“Bosch made a calculated gamble to overpromise to multiple start-up electric vehicle companies on the theory that at least some of them would soon fail,” the lawsuit read.
Although Bosch claims it tried to help Rivian, the EV maker told a different story. Rivian engineers said one of the lines was “in shambles” during a visit to Germany and claimed Bosch was not using “industry standard technology.”
“Instead, Bosch had apparently employed teenage interns to stand by the line holding flashlights for quality control,” Rivian’s lawsuit stated.
The lawsuit cited a letter from Patrick Hermann, Rivian’s former director of procurement, sent to Bosch, saying its failure to deliver e-motors was “the #1 threat to our organization’s success.”
Rivian said it shifted to in-house e-motor production “To keep costs down and to place Rivian more in control of its own supply chain.” The lawsuit added that doing so would help prevent “supplier issues from constraining Rivian’s production in the future.”
Meanwhile, the EV maker cut its production target for 2024 due to a supply shortage. Rivian expects to build between 47,000 and 49,000 vehicles this year, down from its previous target of 57,000.
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Locals call him the “Bicycle hero,” but Texas man Evan Wayne says he’s just doing what he can to help his community after it was cut off due to the recent devastating and deadly flooding tragedy.
When the local Sandy Creek flooded following torrential rains in Texas, it destroyed the only bridge into one community. Residents were cut off from access to supplies, including everything from necessities like food, water, and medicine to basic comforts.
Although the bridge was impassable to cars, volunteers who quickly organized to help the stranded residents found that the damaged bridge could still be traversed on foot. Or in the case of Evan Wayne, it could be covered by an electric bike.
Evan joined hundreds of volunteers who answered the call of grassroots organizers by working together without any official capacity. While many started by hand-pulling garden carts of supplies uphill to reach the stricken community, Evan jury-rigged a trailer to an e-bike and took on as much of the load as he could, helping shuttle much-needed food and gear into the community over hundreds of round-trip journeys.
“This was a dog trailer 48 hours ago. I had a hacksaw, hacked the top off, grabbed some bungee cords, and here we are,” explained Evan in an interview with CBS Austin, while waiting for the next load of gear to be stacked on his trailer.
In the first two days of the operation, he made around 100 round trips each day, shuttling food and water as well as critical rescue supplies. “Right now, I’m waiting on a couple of chainsaws that I’ll bring in for a crew that’s been going at it with handsaws so far.”
In addition to delivering needed supplies, Evan has often found himself moving something even more important: information. “I’ve flagged down medics. I’ve been the guy that goes between Austin EMT and STAR Flight because I’m quicker than cell phones sometimes, people don’t have signal a lot of the time.”
Evan quickly points out that he isn’t the only one helping. “I’ve got an e-bike, but other people are pulling carts. People are walking, people are carrying things. Everyone is doing what they can.” But there’s no doubt that his ability to carry more gear at higher speeds and make hundreds of round-trip journeys so far in and out of the stricken neighborhood has helped impact countless lives.
“This is all volunteers here. They’re just taking it upon themselves to get people where they need to go. I think there’s an umbrella company coming in, taking over tomorrow, but until they get here, people are just taking care of people, which is what you’ve got to do.”
E-bikes proving their worth in emergencies
While many people consider electric bicycles just another form of recreation, they’ve proven to be potent transportation alternatives after natural disasters worldwide.
Not only do their small and efficient batteries make performing hundreds of rescue trips like Evans’ possible, but recharging can be done simply and easily with a solar panel when electricity is out after a disaster. And when gas stations are out of fuel (or simply can’t pump it with the power grid down), e-bikes can keep running while gasoline-powered motorcycles or ATVs run dry.
Electric bicycle batteries have also proven to be a handy source of emergency power after hurricanes and other disasters, often helping owners keep their phones charged up for days to remain in contact with family or rescue services.
While most hope to never need theirs for emergency purposes, electric bicycles have proven their worth in countless disaster scenarios, adding benefits far beyond just alternative transportation, recreation, or fitness riding.
Image credits: CBS Austin (screenshots), used under fair use
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Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testifies during a remote video hearing held by subcommittees of the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee on “Social Media’s Role in Promoting Extremism and Misinformation” in Washington, U.S., March 25, 2021.
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Block jumped more than 5% on Monday, leading a rally in shares of fintech companies as analysts downplayed the threat of JPMorgan Chase’s reported plan to charge data aggregators for access to customer financial information.
The recovery followed steep declines on Friday, after Bloomberg reported that JPMorgan had circulated pricing sheets outlining potential fees for aggregators like Plaid and Yodlee, which connect fintech platforms to users’ bank data.
In a note to clients on Monday, Evercore ISI analysts said the potential new expenses were “far from a ‘business model-breaking’ cost increase.”
In addition to Block’s rise, PayPal climbed 3.5% on Monday after sliding Friday. Robinhood and Shift4 recorded modest gains.
Broader market momentum helped fuel some of the rebound. The Nasdaq closed at a record, and crypto rallied, with bitcoin climbing past $123,000. Ether, solana, and other altcoins also gained.
Evercore ISI’s analysts said that even if JPMorgan’s changes were implemented, the most immediate effect would be a slight bump in the cost of one-time account setups — perhaps 50 to 60 cents.
Morgan Stanley echoed that view, writing that any impact would be “negligible,” especially for large fintechs that rely more on debit, credit, or stored balances than bank account pulls for transactions.
PayPal doesn’t anticipate much short-term impact, according to a person with knowledge of the issue. The person, who asked not to be named in order to speak about private financial matters, noted that PayPal relies on aggregators primarily for account verification and already has long-term pricing contracts in place.
While smaller fintechs that depend heavily on automated clearing house (ACH) rails or Open Banking frameworks for onboarding and compliance may face real pressure if the fees take effect, analysts said the larger platforms are largely insulated.
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