Walnut Creek, CA. Optiwatt, a leading provider of consumer-facing managed charging and home energy optimization software, today announced an agreement with Rivian to deliver direct, authorized electric vehicle (EV) managed charging infrastructure to Rivian drivers across North America. This foundational integration marks a major milestone in Optiwatt's ongoing strategic expansion to scale direct, secure original equipment manufacturer (OEM) pipelines across the automotive industry.
By establishing an authenticated, API-based architecture directly with Rivian's software-defined vehicles, this infrastructure ensures the highest standards of hardware compliance, data privacy, and end-user system reliability. It provides a stable and highly scalable flexible energy resource for energy providers nationwide, while helping EV drivers who opt in to utility programs get more value out of their vehicle through lower home charging costs.
A new blueprint for driver and grid integration
As home charging accounts for the vast majority of EV energy demand, utilities and automotive OEMs have an opportunity to support a more resilient energy grid by helping coordinate load scaling effectively. The Optiwatt and Rivian collaboration prioritizes the driver ecosystem, built on three foundational pillars:
Enhanced user experience
Smart charging is re-engineered into a premium, completely seamless ecosystem. Rivian drivers can securely link their vehicles via official, authenticated APIs in seconds, yielding a sophisticated energy companion that runs quietly and reliably in the background. This lowers sign-up complexity and lets customers start maximizing the value of their Rivian vehicles.
Value through program participation
Moving far beyond basic scheduling, the platform dynamically manages charge windows around localized grid requirements, market pricing signals, and available capacity. This captures maximal structural value for the owner, pairing effortless utility rewards and incentive enrollments with automated grid stabilization.
Integrating with the Rivian ecosystem
Building grid capacity requires program scale. By positioning managed charging education directly within Rivian's trusted channel and community interfaces, drivers are guided seamlessly into programs through a trusted relationship, driving unprecedented scale while supporting utility partners.
"Our collaboration with Rivian is a major milestone in building out Optiwatt's network of direct, secure OEM integrations. Together, we are creating an ecosystem where drivers seamlessly receive maximum value from structural energy programs, and utilities gain access to a highly reliable, frictionless pool of flexible energy resources."
"Rivian vehicles are designed to be active participants in a dynamic distributed grid marketplace. Through this collaboration, we are empowering our customers to be an integral part of a smarter, more resilient energy grid, while improving their daily charging experience and saving on energy costs."
The engineering, product, and grid-services teams at Optiwatt and Rivian are actively collaborating on the architecture and end-to-end integration mapping. The direct integration is being designed from the ground up to support mass enrollment across major utility service territories throughout North America, turning stationary adventure vehicles into active grid assets without interrupting the daily routines of owners.
About Optiwatt
Optiwatt is a premier home energy optimization platform specializing in electric vehicle managed charging and localized grid telematics. Built on zero-friction, direct OEM-authorized connections, Optiwatt matches driver behavior with real-time grid economics to automate carbon reductions and utility cost savings, working with leading automakers and utility operators nationwide to build scalable, resilient Virtual Power Plants (VPPs). Learn more at optiwatt.com.
About Rivian
Rivian (NASDAQ: RIVN) is an American automotive technology company that develops and manufactures category-defining electric vehicles alongside vertically integrated technologies and services. Through innovation across its electrical architecture, end-to-end software, autonomous driving platform, AI, and propulsion, Rivian builds vehicles that accelerate the global transition to zero-emission transportation and energy. Learn more at rivian.com.
Optiwatt Corporate Communications: [email protected] · optiwatt.com
Rivian: [email protected]