A $6 billion federal loan just saved the Rivian plant in Georgia — for now

Riviansky is close to securing a $6 billion construction loan in Georgia second productionthe company announced late Monday. This would give new life to the project, which Rivian was forced to suspend earlier in 2024 for financial reasons. The new facility is designed to accommodate the company’s expanding lineup as it plans to build a new one R2, R3 and R3X when they go into production in the coming years.

According to the company’s announcement, it received a “contingent commitment” from the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Vehicle Manufacturing Technology (ATVM) loan program totaling $6.6 billion (an additional $600 million covers interest). Since the final performance of the loan has not yet been completed, Rivian is at the mercy of bureaucracy; A future Trump administration could potentially scuttle the deal — or even try to undo it after the fact. AP reports.

Rivian currently operates one factory in Normal, Illinois, where it builds R1S, R1T and its commercial vans. The Georgia plant was introduced as an additional production facility for existing Rivian models. It was originally slated to employ 7,500 people when fully deployed, and Rivian reiterated that figure in an announcement this week.

“Rivian intends to build the facility in two phases, each of which will result in 200,000 units of annual production capacity, for a total of 400,000 units of annual capacity – to support the sale of American electric vehicles in international markets,” it said. “The first phase of the project is expected to start production in 2028. Rivian is expected to create around 7,500 jobs by 2030.”

Rivian says the loan allows it to more aggressively ramp up production efforts in the US, and it confirmed that the expansion will include the capacity needed to build the new R2 and R3. The first will appear in 2026. If Rivian follows through on this promise, we can expect the first production R2s to come out of Illinois, not Georgia.

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