In mid-September, Rivian halted manufacturing operations at its Illinois plant, as the company upgraded the factory to accommodate production of the R2 SUV.
Following a one-week pause in the second quarter of the year, the EV maker used the 3-week shutdown to integrate new components and prepare for the launch of its smaller, lower-cost SUV R2 next year.
In early September, the Irvine-based company confirmed in a 10Q filing that the Normal factory would close “for approximately three weeks starting late in the third quarter of 2025.”
According to the company’s timeline, production is expected to resume this week.
The halt was expected to “temporarily impact production and utilization, resulting in higher cost of revenues on a per-unit basis during the period,” Rivian warned in a Q10 filing with the SEC.
Last week, the company reported its quarterly delivery and production figures, disclosing that it produced 10,720 vehicles in the third quarter.
The numbers nearly doubled from the 5,979 units produced in the second quarter, which the EV maker said was limited, as it was preparing to launch the 2026 iterations of both its R1T and R1S models.
CFO Claire McDonough further explained that the decrease was a “result of a variety of supply chain related complexities, partially driven by shifts visibility into these components for the remainder of the year.”
Despite the quarter-over-quarter increase, production figures fell by 18.5% year over year.
Rivian, which delivered 13,201 vehicles in the July-September period, expected the third quarter to be its “strongest” of the year, according to its founder and CEO RJ Scaringe.
The company trimmed its delivery guidance by the second time in 2025, now expecting to deliver 41,500 to 43,500 units by year-end.
As it restarts production in Normal, the company will focus on production intent builds of the R2 until “saleable” models start production early next year.
The R2 SUV is currently in “what we call a validation phase,” Scaringe said on Monday.
Up until the end of the year, Rivian will begin “running vehicles through our plant on production equipment and production process.”
The company recently announced late last month that it has “hundreds of production-intent builds” of the upcoming SUV on the road for real-world testing.
The Normal plant will have an allocated capacity of 155,000 units for R2 production.
Rivian will then expand R2 production to its upcoming Georgia facility, which is under construction.
The plant is expected to support an annual capacity of 400,000 units, with sales of its production starting in late 2028.
The EV maker had previously paused production at its main factory from April 5 to April 30, 2024, to upgrade equipment and boost output for its R1 models.
