By Victoria WalderseeBERLIN (Reuters) -Volkswagen shares fell on Wednesday as traders anxious about the price and uncertainties of a three way partnership with U.S. electrical car (EV) maker Rivian geared toward beefing up Europe’s greatest automaker’s place in EVs.The German group stated on Tuesday it could make investments as much as $5 billion in Rivian as a part of a enterprise to share EV platforms and software program.The tie-up is the newest shift by Volkswagen from a go-it-alone technique to bringing in experience through partnerships in key areas for electrification, from batteries to EV platforms to software program.But it surely provides to questions on the way forward for Volkswagen’s personal software program subsidiary, Cariad, which has struggled with years of delays and losses.”Cariad ought to and can disappear. The fact is it’ll turn into irrelevant and die a pure loss of life,” stated Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois, including that no different legacy carmaker had managed to construct a aggressive software program providing alone.Nonetheless, Houchois welcomed the change in technique signalled by the deal. “The outdated VW would have saved throwing cash on the downside – the brand new VW with (CEO Oliver) Blume is extra pragmatic and humble, on the lookout for assist elsewhere.”Accountability and assets for creating a unified working system for autos throughout the Volkswagen Group – dubbed the ‘2.0’ software program structure or ‘software-defined car’ – shall be centralised within the three way partnership, bringing in experience from Cariad.Cariad can even stick with it creating its personal initiatives, together with software program for automated driving, a Volkswagen spokesperson stated.Cariad CEO Peter Bosch stated in a LinkedIn submit late Tuesday that the Rivian enterprise would velocity up Volkswagen’s software program growth efforts and decrease prices.The partnership mirrors points of a deal struck between Volkswagen and Chinese language EV start-up Xpeng in July final 12 months to collaborate on software program and a China-specific EV platform, although in contrast to the Xpeng partnership, Rivian and Volkswagen won’t develop joint fashions.Whereas the software program developed with Xpeng is just supposed to be used in China, that developed with Rivian may technically be used anyplace, the spokesperson stated, including the specifics weren’t but determined. MORE CAPEXVolkswagen shares have greater than halved over the previous three years, hit by issues the sprawling group might battle to compete with nimble EV rivals in the US and Asia.At 1047 GMT, Volkswagen’s shares had been down 1.97%, the largest decline on Germany’s blue-chip DAX index.Story continuesSome analysts raised issues concerning the measurement of the funding, with Volkswagen’s goal funding ratio of 12% of revenues above the 8% or much less focused by friends like Stellantis.”Whereas the transaction may make sense strategically … we consider traders would like VW to promote property, not purchase them,” Stifel Analysis stated.Roger Atkins of consultancy Electrical Automobiles Outlook Ltd additionally questioned whether or not Volkswagen and Rivian had been suitable.”There’s the tradition situation – attempting to mix Rivian’s full-stack vertically built-in and versatile, nimble software program strategy with Volkswagen’s extra conventional strategy of working with a number of suppliers and center administration is like shoving a sq. peg in a spherical gap,” he stated.(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee; Further reporting by Christoph Steitz; Modifying by Madeline Chambers and Mark Potter)