Volkswagen is again debating whether to build its core volume models on China-developed software instead of Rivian’s. VW brand chief Thomas Schäfer wants the CEA architecture for about three-quarters of the next VW, Škoda and Cupra generation, including the ID.Golf, ID.Passat, Enyaq and the Tiguan family. His team expects savings of €4–5 billion, and at least €3 billion even if VW keeps funding the Rivian joint venture. A developer hour at Rivian’s JV costs about four times as much as at VW’s Hefei center VCTC. The CEA is already in series production, while Rivian’s software is not expected to be ready for the full SSP generation before the end of 2028.

The pressure comes from the top. The supervisory board wants the Core brand group to improve earnings by more than €12 billion and cut investment by almost €15 billion by 2030. The current plan splits the world into China plus export markets on CEA and Europe plus the US on Rivian. Schäfer wants to move that line so it separates North America from everyone else.

VW developed the CEA from an XPeng base and, according to the company, owns the IP. The board turned down Schäfer’s first attempt. Audi CEO Gernot Döllner still backs Rivian, and critics doubt that adapting the CEA to EU rules will be cheap. CFO Arno Antlitz is seen as the swing vote.

What does this mean for VW and the other players? A yes would show that a Western OEM can use China as its development base, rather than just a market, while keeping its own IP. That is a different model from Stellantis buying technology from Leapmotor. It would also concede that VW’s two earlier software bets, CARIAD and now Rivian, could not deliver at volume-segment cost. The cost logic is strong, but so is the political exposure. North America is already excluded, and Europe could tighten its rules on Chinese-origin vehicle software. VW would also have to run at least two next-generation architectures in parallel, which erodes part of the savings. Either way, Rivian risks losing its largest volume customer, and every European OEM will have to justify why its next software stack still costs four times as much.

This summary was co-created with writing agent based on Opus 5.5. Find the original article on manager magazin.