But Ford will continue with its own electric ute in partnership with Korean company SK Innovations while Rivian is now delivering its utes to customers after production began in September.

The announcement by Ford and Rivian said the cessation of the alliance was mutual. Rivian shares plunged 17 per cent on the news while Ford shares rose. 

Even with the share fall, Rivian’s market valuation of $US96 billion is still about 20 per cent more than the value of Ford.

Ford and Rivian said in separate statements that their plans and needs had changed since the original collaboration was announced.

Although no longer planning to jointly build vehicles, Ford remains a major investor in Rivian with about 12 per cent of its shares after a $US500 million placement in April 2019.

This placement included an announcement that the pair would develop an EV pick-up under the Lincoln badge. But a year later it dropped these plans.

The stake in Rivian owned by Ford is now worth about $US10 billion after Rivian’s IPO raised $US12 billion.

Rivian’s statement said: “As Ford has scaled its own EV strategy and demand for Rivian vehicles has grown, we’ve mutually decided to focus on our own projects and deliveries.”

“Our relationship with Ford is an important part of our journey, and Ford remains an investor and ally on our shared path to an electrified future.”

F-150 Lightning

Rivian has started delivering its R1T EV utes and is aiming to start delivering its R1S electric SUVs by the end of the year. It is also working on electric delivery vans for Amazon, which owns 18 per cent of Rivian.

Ford also has not been idle. It recently announced a $US7 billion investment — the largest single investment in its history — in a new assembly factory and three new battery plants it will jointly own with Korean supplier SK Innovations. 

The factory will build electric pickups in Tennessee while the battery plants will be in Tennessee and Kentucky. 

This is part of Ford’s plan to invest $US30 billion in EVs in the next five years, with the goal of 40 per cent of its total sales being of electric vehicles by 2030.

Ford has one full EV in production – the Mustang Mach-E – while the F-150 Lightning is being marketed next year.

Both have had huge demand from consumers. Ford has already made more than the 50,000 Mustang Mach-Es it planned to build in 2021, the first full year of its production. It is close to tripping over 200,000 deposits for the F-150 Lightning.

Mr Farley also told Automotive News that Ford plans to double the number of EVs it will build globally by the end of 2023 to 600,000. 

Ford’s statement said: “While Rivian is doing lots of interesting things, and we’ve got great respect for R.J. [Scaringe, the Rivian CEO] and his team, we like very much where we’re at, and Ford and Rivian have both agreed we’ll not pursue any kind of joint vehicle development or platform sharing.”

Ford CEO Jim Farley told Automotive News that: “When you compare today with when we originally made that investment, so much has changed: about our ability, about the brand’s direction in both cases, and now it’s more certain to us what we have to do.”

“We want to invest in Rivian — we love their future as a company — but at this point, we’re going to develop our own vehicles.”

By Neil Dowling