Rivian Opens Tech Center In Serbia Where It Plans To Employ 1,200

Serbia may not seem like the most obvious choice for a Rivian Tech center, but the company is confident.

Rivian Opens Tech Center Serbia

Andrei Nedelea

By: Andrei Nedelea

Dec 12, 2022 at 6:25am ET

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Rivian has officially expanded outside North America with the opening of a tech center in Belgrade, Serbia, where it hopes to hire some 200 engineers in the near future, as well as an additional 1,000 workers over time. The EV startup is looking to developing its mapping tech, infotainment and advanced driver assistance systems at this location in the Balkans, as well as provide IT services for the entire company.

According to Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić, this is a great day for his country, and it reaffirms Serbia’s position on the automotive technology map. He considers Rivian as being the world’s most innovative EV startup and that it helps put the country on the “innovative-technological map,” as he calls it. He goes on to say that

We have been working on this for at least a year and a half. This arrival is very significant for us. Rivian is the most innovative company in the whole world when it comes to electric vehicles. We brought the best from the world to Serbia - Serbia is the only one that succeeded. Besides the USA and Canada, they opened a center only in Serbia. No one else in Europe can boast of that.

Gallery: Rivian Opens Tech Center Serbia

Rivian Opens Tech Center Serbia

Rivian was also planning to build vehicles in Europe via a joint venture with Mercedes-Benz, which seemed like it was going to go through as the two companies signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in September. It stated that the company would produce vehicles in Poland, Hungary or Romania, but now that won’t happen as Rivian focuses on first having a positive cash flow before considering any kind of expansion.

Rivian Chief Financial Officer Claire McDonough was quoted by Reuters as stating that

The pausing of this partnership reflects our process of continually evaluating our major capital projects, while taking into consideration our current and anticipated economic conditions.