Adding another $800 million! Volkswagen will "lavishly spend" $5.8 billion to advance its collaboration plan with Rivian.

On Tuesday, Volkswagen announced an additional $800 million investment in a joint venture with Rivian (RIVN.US) to develop battery-powered vehicles. In June of this year, Volkswagen had already announced plans to invest $5 billion in Rivian. In addition, Volkswagen and Rivian have appointed leaders for their joint venture, worth billions of dollars, and showcased an electric vehicle prototype, demonstrating a commitment despite soft global demand for electric vehicles and upcoming threats of reduced support policies from the incoming Trump administration. This financial lifeline may ease concerns about Rivian's spending and allow the German automaker to access software technology from its American partner, a field where Volkswagen has struggled. As of the time of writing, Rivian's stock price rose 8.32% to $11.46 in after-hours trading. The stock fell 4.17% in regular trading on Tuesday. In a joint statement, both companies announced that the joint venture between Rivian and Volkswagen Group will be co-led by Rivian's Chief Software Officer Wassym Bensaid and Volkswagen's Chief Technology Officer Carsten Helbing. The two CEOs will lead a specialized team of about 1,000 engineers from both companies. "This is an acceleration of our future plans," said Bensaid in an interview at Rivian's Palo Alto office. Volkswagen aims to launch vehicles refined by the joint venture by 2027. The companies also plan to develop a new software-defined car with more advanced technology, eventually licensing it to other automakers. The prototype showcased in Palo Alto integrated Rivian's software-based vehicle architecture into an unmarked Volkswagen test car, with the engineers from the joint venture completing the installation in 12 weeks, according to Bensaid. Helbing will also serve as the joint venture's Chief Operating Officer, stating that this technology can easily be applied to Volkswagen's commercial models at a similar speed. He added that working with a smaller, more flexible partner like Rivian accelerates decision-making and development time. "The impressive part for us is the speed and the pace of implementation," said Helbing in an interview. "The goal is to maintain the pace." Bensaid sees the joint venture as a way for Rivian to leverage the economies of scale enjoyed by its larger partners to improve cost savings and increase the carmaker's profit margins. He mentioned that Volkswagen's new Scout brand also plans to utilize the technology from the Rivian-VW joint venture.