500 jobs in next two years: Rivian opens research and development center in Serbia

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic attended the ceremonial opening in New Belgrade of the technological center of the US manufacturer of electric vehicles Rivian.

"Serbia is the only country in Europe that succeeded in that. In addition to the US and Canada, they opened a center only in Serbia. It's something you live and work and fight for. I saw motivated young people here, who are well paid, and who will stay here to live and work," he said during his address.

The president also had the opportunity to sit in one of the company's models, whose dashboard is fully digitized and incorporates the Alexa "assistant."

"I'm a peasant, I learned to drive stick," joked the president.

He was testing the latest model, one of the electric off-road vehicles, which has 835 horsepower.

The SUV reaches an exceptional speed in just three seconds and has 135 kilowatt batteries. Also, the vehicle is equipped with a lot of technology and has as many as 11 cameras, which it uses to better navigate and monitor traffic.

500 jobs

In his address to those, President Vucic said he hoped that this is just the beginning of cooperation.

"I hope that this is only the first stage, that these wonderful vehicles will one day be produced in Serbia. In the next two years, the company will employ 500 people in the technology centers in Belgrade and Novi Sad," stressed Vucic.

The president announced that work on strengthening the capacities of technical faculties is now up next.

"It is now obvious that it was good when we started with dual education, but we have to move faster, stronger, more seriously and more responsibly," he said.

According to Vucic, trade exchange with the US is growing and this year it will significantly exceed or even be close to 1.4 billion dollars.

"It will be more than 32, 33 percent higher than last year," added Vucic.

Vucic previously told Tanjug that the opening of the technology center before the end of this year will provide 200 jobs for engineers, and eventually another 1,000 jobs.

"Before the end of this year, they will open 200 engineering jobs, then 1,000 more. Keep in mind this is one of the two, or three, top US electric car manufacturing companies. It's a great success for our country," said Vucic while he was in New York earlier, stressing that it took almost two years to bring Rivian to Serbia.

The company confirmed this, pointing out that several hundred job applications have been received to date, most of which showed interest in jobs related to mapping, infotainment, ADAS (advanced driver assistance system) and IT services.

They stated that the first employees started working in the previous days, as well as that Rivian will expand its team in Belgrade in the coming weeks and months.

The opening was also attended by Serbian Minister of Innovation Jelena Begovic, Rivian VP, Talent Acquisition Cindy Nicola and Wassym Bensaid, Senior VP Software Development at Rivian, as well as US ambassador to Serbia Christopher Hill.

About the company

California-based Rivian, known for manufacturing electric pickup trucks and SUVs, officially announced in September that it is opening its R&D center in Belgrade with the intention of hiring local technical staff and engineers from the automotive industry.

As previously announced, the company will operate under the name Rivian SE Europe d.o.o. Beogradin in Serbia.

Rivian was founded in 2009 and works to design and produce electric adventure vehicles. The first vehicle model was R1T, a pick-up truck with two rows of seats for five passengers, which was declared the best vehicle in its category, as well as R1S, an SUV with three rows of seats for seven passengers.

The vehicles are a combination of excellent performance, utility and efficiency. R1T and R1S are equipped with advanced tech systems, including vehicle electronics, battery, electric drive, chassis, Driver+ advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) and digital steering.

(Telegraf.rs)