Rivian snags $6.6B conditional federal loan to build Georgia factory

Rivian said late Monday it has secured conditional commitment for a $6.6 billion loan from the Department of Energy, funds that will help the EV maker restart construction of a massive factory in Georgia.

The funds will come from DOE’s Loan Programs Office Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Loan Program. Rivian said it expects to begin operations at the Georgia factory in 2028 — four years later than originally planned. The factory will employ 7,500 people by the end of 2030, a figure that is tied to an incentives package approved several years ago by Georgia’s Department of Economic Development. 

Rivian announced in December 2021 plans to build a second factory east of Atlanta that the company said would have doubled the annual production capacity of its plant in Normal, Illinois, and cost an estimated $5 billion to build. At the time, Rivian said the Georgia factory would have a targeted annual production capacity of 400,000 vehicles a year and begin production of its next-generation EVs in 2024. The company landed a $1.5 billion incentives package to build factory in Georgia, according to documents to the state’s Department of Economic Development.

Faced with a cash crunch, Rivian paused construction on the factory and changed plans to build its next-generation R2 midsize SUV there. Instead, Rivian announced in March 2024 during the R2 reveal that the new EV would be produced at its Normal, Illinois, factory. That shift was projected to save the company $2.25 billion.

A few months later, Rivian was awarded $827 million in incentives from the state of Illinois to support building its R2 at the Normal plant.

The federal loans program has supported a number of companies in recent years for EV-related projects, including $465 million to Tesla in 2009, a $9.2 billion conditional commitment in June to support a Ford joint venture with SK to finance two battery factories in the United States, and a $2 billion loan to help battery materials and recycling startup Redwood Materials finance the growth and expansion of its headquarters in Nevada.

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