Rivian and VW's new $22,500 car proves cheap EVs don't have to be low-tech, the Tesla rival's software boss says
Rivian and VW are teaming up to build more affordable EVs, but that doesn't mean they're planning to skimp on high-tech features.
The Tesla rival is partnering with Volkswagen to develop a $22,500 electric car, and Wassym Bensaid, the company's chief software officer, said the upcoming EV won't compromise on tech despite its ultra-low price point.
VW and Rivian announced a deal last year that will see the German car giant invest over $5 billion in the startup and form a joint company to develop next-generation software and EV technology, with Bensaid and VW exec Carsten Helbing as co-CEOs.
In March, VW unveiled the ID.EVERY1, a compact electric hatchback that will be the first VW vehicle to include software developed by the joint venture.
The 13-foot-long, four-seater EV is set to go on sale in Europe by 2027 for around 20,000 euros ($22,500). VW has not said whether it has any plans to bring it to the US.
"It's something which is extremely close to my heart because it's a way to bring that technology into many more cars," Bensaid told BI.
"Inexpensive cars shouldn't have low technology, and this is the beauty of the setup that we're enabling through the joint venture," said the Rivian executive, who spoke to BI on the sidelines of The Financial Times' Future of the Car conference.
Bensaid said the affordable hatchback would leverage Rivian's software architecture to cut costs.
Rather than use individual computers to control components like seats, lights, and doors, all the ID.EVERY1's features will be handled by a central computer built on Rivian's technology, which Bensaid would allow VW to save money by using fewer parts and simplifying the design.
The ID.EVERY1 will not be the first vehicle to use technology developed by the Rivian-VW joint venture — that will be Rivian's R2, which is set to launch next year — but it is a huge step for both companies.
A lack of affordable EVs remains one of the main reasons customers are reluctant to go electric, and VW is betting that its cheapest ever battery-powered offering will help fill that gap.
They're not the only ones making that bet. Startup Slate Auto caused a stir last month when it unveiled a $25,000 pickup truck, which is set to go on sale in the US in 2026.
The Slate truck has bucked the trend of vehicles becoming more computerized and packed with smart technology.
The base model lacks power windows, a radio, and any kind of built-in infotainment system, with Slate's CEO telling BI that the company had focused on simplicity to keep the price as low as possible.
So far, consumers haven't seemed that bothered by the lack of bells and whistles, with the Jeff Bezos-backed startup receiving 100,000 refundable $50 reservations in just two weeks.
When asked about Slate's approach, Bensaid said Rivian welcomes more competition in the EV market but has made a "different choice" in how it approaches making electric cars more affordable.
"Inexpensive cars shouldn't be cars with limited features," he said, adding that Rivian believed it was possible to deliver a "rich user experience" at a low price point by making vehicle technology more efficient.
"That is our approach. We would like to enable choice for customers, but without such severe compromise in terms of the overall experience," Bensaid said.
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CNBC
2 hours ago
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China's grueling ‘996' work culture is being debated by European startups — 7 founders and VCs on why they are resisting
The European startup scene was recently shaken by a LinkedIn debate with some venture capitalists applying pressure on founders to embrace a culture of overwork to compete on a global stage. The "996" work culture reigns supreme in China and has been adopted by various tech giants including Jack Ma's Alibaba and Bytedance's TikTok, but the system has also been the subject of much protest in recent years. Tech workers in Europe told CNBC in 2021 that they're turning down job offers, rejecting interviews, or even quitting their roles, upon learning of TikTok's 996 work culture. Sebastian Becker, general partner at Switzerland-based VC company Redalpine added to the debate on LinkedIn by addressing the new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has called for removal of the legal work limit of eight hours per day in Germany in a bid to increase efficiency, while keeping the 40-hour week. Becker said Merz' proposal doesn't go far enough, as "40 hours a week won't cut it." "In Silicon Valley, 60-70 hour weeks aren't the exception — they even have a term for it: 996 — 9am to 9pm, six days a week... we can have the same amount of smart, ambitious people, but if we're consistently being outworked, we won't win," Becker said. Index Ventures Partner Martin Mignot in London explained on LinkedIn that 996 originated in China and has "quietly become the norm" at startups internationally. Part of the reason behind this most recent push is that there's a persistent view that Europe's tech and startup scene is lagging behind the U.S. and China, both of which have produced tech giants and are known for intense work cultures. However, Suranga Chandratillake, general partner at Balderton Capital, told CNBC Make It that these views are outdated as Europe has produced deca-corns in recent years— companies worth more than $10 billion including Klarna, Revolut, Wise, and The continent has yet to produce a trillion-dollar tech firm like Nvidia. "The European tech market and ecosystem is keeping up today with the U.S. and Asia... back in the 1980s the European tech scene was behind the tech scene on the West Coast of the US, but that's not the case now," Chandratillake said in an interview. The calls for Europe to adopt the 996 work culture sparked a wave of backlash. CNBC spoke with seven European startup founders and VCs on why they disagree. The obsession with China's 996 or Silicon Valley's 24/7 work culture emerges from a glorification of hustle culture in the startup landscape, founders and VCs said. "It's about a fetishization of overwork rather than smart work…it's a myth," Chandratillake said. "California is very good at telling stories and there's a lot of mythmaking around the concept of what startups look like…. there is hard work involved but if you really spend time in that ecosystem, you will discover that lots of people work really hard, but there are also periods where they don't work." Nina Mohanty, a Silicon Valley native and founder of London-based Bloom Money, said there are actually "lasting effects and unintended consequences" to adopting an aggressive overwork culture, "You only have to think about Revolut and the culture that they have is probably the closest that we've seen in Europe to the 996 culture, and they struggled," Mohanty told CNBC. "Their churn rate was incredibly high within their team, and they even struggled to get their banking license, and their culture was actually cited as one of those reasons." For its part, Revolut told CNBC it operates in a "high-growth, high-performance environment." "In line with this, we've evolved how we support our people: through value-based behaviours, structured development, and a culture that's collaborative, challenging, and built for scale," a spokesperson from Revolut said. Noa Khamallah, general partner at Don't Quit Ventures, pointed out that there's "no need for 996" and that these values are often at odds with both the European mindset and regulation. "Europe's most successful companies — from Spotify to SAP to ASML — didn't achieve dominance through overwork but through sustainable innovation cultures," Khamallah said. He offered the examples of Silicon Valley's Uber and Meta, both companies that expanded into Europe and faced massive regulatory pushback. "These examples reveal how Silicon Valley's 'move fast and break things' ethos often breaks against European values around worker rights, privacy, and sustainable business practices," Khamallah said. An always-on culture decreases retention and creates a revolving door of talent, Sarah Wernér, co-founder of Husmus, told CNBC. "Overwork today is a productivity crisis tomorrow," Wernér said. "Personally, I hope my competitors are doing 996. It makes poaching great people a lot easier when they decide they've had enough." Dama Sathianathan, a senior partner at Bethnal Green Ventures said it's unhelpful to "prescribe" working hours, especially if it means putting workers' wellbeing at risk. "Optimizing labor doesn't always lead to better productivity, or help with differentiating from other companies long-term, if you've made work devoid of meaning," Sathianathan explained. Meanwhile, the youngest generation at work are less likely to put up with overworking and tend to prioritize work-life balance. Jas Schembri-Stothart, founder of Luna, a health and wellness app for teen girls, said 996 will drive young talent away from European startups. "People may tolerate overwork for a while, but eventually it leads to churn and even resentment, especially with Gen Z and younger millennials, there's much less tolerance for toxic hustle cultures," Schembri-Stothart said. Founders insist that instead of increasing working hours, startups need more funding and resources to position themselves as key players in the global startup scene. "What Europe really needs isn't more hustle-porn it's more aggressive funding," Wernér said. "With the right level of capital, our startups can hire enough talent to work intensely without breaking themselves. If a team of 10 is burning out to keep up with a 50-person U.S. VC or Chinese government-backed startup, the problem isn't their stamina, it's their cap table." In fact, since 2015 Europe's tech startups have missed out on nearly $375 billion in growth-stage funding, with founders losing out on a potential $300 billion in European investments, according to Atomico's State of European Tech report published in 2024. Additionally, one in two companies raising funding turn to the U.S. for capital rather than Europe. "What European startups really need is access to the right resources — funding, talent, and support — to grow, innovate quickly, and scale effectively," Schembri-Stothart said. "The venture landscape in the U.S. is a different ballgame altogether, and it's tough to compete with that without a stronger ecosystem here. Founders acknowledged that the startup life requires intense hustle and grind, but it's a more nuanced picture than just adopting 996. Timothy Armoo, co-founder and former CEO of Fanbytes, an influencer marketing firm that he sold for eight figures in 2022, told CNBC that he's a "huge supporter" of this new 996 push, but admitted that timing is key. "I think there are seasons but I also think that if you are a first-time founder or if your primary goal is basically wealth creation, I'll be very candid, if this is your season, and you're stepping back, then you're not serious about it," he said. Armoo said there are no excuses because AI allows entrepreneurs to be maximally efficient as it can reduce certain time-consuming manual tasks. Meanwhile, Bloom Money's Mohanty, said that when she's not sleeping, she's working. "I think early stage teams tend to almost unknowingly or without actually saying it, work the 996 life, because when you are early stage, you just have to hustle harder with less, and especially if you're the founder, you're always on and always working, and it can be very, very difficult to turn off." Schembri-Stothart draws the line at exploiting her team to produce more work. "It's my choice to work at the weekend, but I'd never expect that on my team, it's definitely not glorified to push your teams to breaking point. Silicon Valley tech exec Dion McKenzie warned that expectations of a 996 culture could make VC funding even more out of reach for early-stage startups. "My fear is that as these new norms and trends become the status quo and benchmarks for getting funded, it excludes so many brilliant founders that value their mental health and/or can't commit to a 996 due to caregiving responsibilities or being a parent," Mckenzie said.
Miami Herald
3 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Legendary fund manager sends blunt 6-word message on bitcoin
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More Experts Fed official sends strong message about interest-rate cutsBillionaire fund manager sends surprising message on trade deficitHedge-fund manager sees U.S. becoming Greece In short, Gross has been around the block, making his take on bitcoin worth paying attention to. Gross believes bitcoin is valuable because individuals and others widely hold it, and its supply is capped. "There are now approximately 19.4 million Bitcoins priced at about 107,000 each. The supply of total coins is capped at 21 million over the next few years of "mining," wrote Gross recently on X. "While hard to estimate, approximately 90-95% are held by individuals, institutions, and the moment there is "value" to a Bitcoin." However, Gross appears to think that bitcoin's value may be reflected in its price after its recent rally. "It is in the "meme stock" world for the most part - more valuable than a Trump coin but subject to excessive volatility with underlying value hard to measure," wrote Gross. "There are better risk/reward opportunities," added Gross bluntly. "Any asset category using high leverage is a future risk not only to the asset itself but to the financial system as a whole." Related: Veteran fund manager resets stock market forecast amid Musk, Trump fallout The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
After Hitting All-Time Highs This Year, Is Berkshire Hathaway a Buy Today?
Berkshire Hathaway is run by none other than Warren Buffett, arguably the greatest investor of our time. Berkshire's stock has outperformed the S&P 500 this year and hit all-time highs. Investors seem to like the company's diversity of businesses and its management, and view the stock as a flight to safety. 10 stocks we like better than Berkshire Hathaway › Once the Trump administration began to implement sweeping tariffs against major trading partners of the U.S. in April, investors, sensing a significant disruption in the market, ditched U.S. risk assets and ran for cover. They piled into cash, gold, and assets they believed could provide a port in the storm. One of those happened to be Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A)(NYSE: BRK.B), one of the largest conglomerates in the world, run by arguably the world's best investor, Warren Buffett. Berkshire's stock was up nearly 10% (as of June 4), compared to the broader benchmark S&P 500's roughly 2% gain. Berkshire's stock also hit all-time highs earlier this year. Is the stock still a buy today? Aside from Buffett and his strong team of investing lieutenants and managers, one thing investors seem to like about Berkshire is the diversity of businesses under the large conglomerate's umbrella. Berkshire not only operates a massive stock portfolio, but also a large insurance business as the owner of Geico. The company also owns a slate of energy assets, the Burlington North Santa Fe Railroad, and a mortgage business, among others. It might be difficult for some of these sectors to operate alone, but together they provide diversity and have turned Berkshire into a juggernaut that generated over $89.5 billion of earnings in 2024. It also had $47.4 billion of operating earnings, which Buffett believes is a better metric for the company because it strips out volatile unrealized capital gains and losses. 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While Berkshire's stock does look a bit expensive right now, I still think long-term-oriented investors will be served well by owning it. For one, Buffett and his team have built Berkshire to last, meaning it can perform well through the entirety of the economic cycle, including the tougher parts. Berkshire's equities portfolio has exposure to growth stocks like tech and artificial intelligence, but management are also clearly big believers in oil and gas, which they may view as a finite resource. Not only does the company own and operate energy businesses, but Berkshire has major stakes in large domestic oil and gas producers like Occidental Petroleum and Chevron. These stocks should perform well if the price of oil, which trades in the low $60s per barrel, eventually rises. Investors may be concerned over the fact that Buffett, who is 94 years old, is preparing to retire at the end of 2025 after over six decades on the job. No one will ever be able to replace the Oracle of Omaha, but incoming CEO Greg Abel is more than capable. Without the Buffett brand, I think Berkshire may also try to entice investors by returning more capital to shareholders through stock repurchases and perhaps even a dividend, which Berkshire has never paid before. So even with the departure of Buffett, who will stay on as chair of the company's board of directors, it's not all doom and gloom. There is still much more for investors to look forward to. Before you buy stock in Berkshire Hathaway, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Berkshire Hathaway wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $669,517!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $868,615!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 792% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 171% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 2, 2025 Bram Berkowitz has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Berkshire Hathaway and Chevron. The Motley Fool recommends Occidental Petroleum. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. After Hitting All-Time Highs This Year, Is Berkshire Hathaway a Buy Today? was originally published by The Motley Fool Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
