Rivian and Bosch's legal battle: The allegations of both sides, summarized

Rivian and supplier Bosch are locked in a bitter legal battle over the EV maker's electric motors. Bosch and Rivian signed a development, production, and supply agreement for electric motors in 2019. As Rivian attempted to ramp up its vehicle production in 2021, the automaker noted that it was facing supply issues.  

Bosch sued Rivian in July over the carmaker's alleged breach of contract. Rivian filed a lawsuit against the supplier on the same day, also accusing Bosch of an alleged breach of contract. Judge Brian Sullivan has scheduled the next status conference for the case to be held in February 2025. 

As noted in a report from Automotive News, Bosch is claiming that Rivian had refused to pay $204 million in reimbursements after the company terminated its electric motor deal. The supplier alleged that by bringing electric motor production in-house, Rivian effectively left Bosch with stranded capital and a large hit in its revenue.  

Rivian, for its part, has accused the supplier of "reckless failures" in its motor supply contract. The company also blamed Bosch for production shortages that resulted in 30,000 fewer vehicles manufactured in 2022 than expected. 

Here is a quick summary of the claims from Bosch and Rivian.

Bosch's claims 

In its lawsuit, Bosch claimed that it had invested millions of dollars worth of engineering and tooling at a facility in Germany. This location was where Bosch initially started the production of electric motors for Rivian. Bosch also noted that it constructed a 30,000-square-foot production line at a South Carolina plant to support the electric truck maker. 

"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 claimed.

Bosch claimed that in September 2023, Rivian canceled its contract after months of no communication. At the time, Bosch claimed that it was running its lines at full capacity for the automaker. Also at the time, Bosch claimed that Rivian was already designing its in-house electric motors and drive unit. The supplier alleged that Rivian was secretly planning to replace Bosch' business with its in-house motors, even if it was telling the supplier that its in-house efforts would run parallel to Bosch's program. 

Rivian's claims 

Rivian, for its part, claimed that Bosch had invested "insufficient resources" and used "unqualified personnel" to run the electric vehicle maker's program. This, according to Rivian, resulted in the supplier falling short of its volume targets. Rivian claimed that by the end of 2022, Bosch had just supplied 101,000 electric motors, less than half the requirement for the year. Since Bosch "choked off" Rivian's production lines, it resulted in "cataclysmic" damage to the electric truck maker's finances and reputation. 

"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," Rivian claimed. 

Rivian also alleged that Bosch was not putting legitimate effort into its deal with the automaker, as noted in an Auto News report. As per Rivian, during a trip to Bosch's electric motor plant in Germany, its engineers found one of the lines "in shambles." The automaker also alleged that Bosch "did not use industry standard technology" to monitor its welds. Instead, "Bosch had allegedly employed teenage interns to stand by the line holding flashlights for quality control." Rivian's lawsuit also included a letter from Patrick Hermann, then Rivian's director of procurement, stating that Bosch's failure to deliver electric motors was the "#1 threat to our organization's success."

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