Written by Cláudio Afonso | [email protected] | LinkedIn | X
As reported earlier today, Rivian received this Thursday a $827M incentive package from the State of Illinois allowing the expansion of its plant in Normal. Rivian shares are trading 7 percent higher following the news.
Rivian stated that the funds “will go towards expansion of the plant, improvements in public infrastructure and job training programs for Rivian’s workforce, leading up to the company’s production of its midsized SUV, R2”.
“We are grateful for this investment from the State of Illinois and for the leadership of Governor Pritzker, President Harmon, and Speaker Welch,” said RJ Scaringe, Rivian Founder and Chief Executive.
“The support from the state will allow us to quickly bring our midsize SUV, R2, to market and provide even greater consumer choice for EVs,” he added.
NEVER MISS AN UPDATE
Rivian’s R2 is a smaller and cheaper version of the R1S model that will be based on the next-gen EV platform designed to lower costs.
Initially, Rivian planned to build the R2 at a new $5 billion factory in Georgia. However, the company changed its plans because the Georgia plant won’t be ready in time.
Rivian‘s plant in Illinois was closed from April 5 until the first of May amid the implementation of new technologies and production methods aimed at substantial cost reduction. The factory re-opened this week and an employee from the manufacturing team has shared what we can expect after the upgrade.
Amid updates on the revamped R1 models, new robots, and quality improvements, it was mentioned that “lots of things still need to happen” to start production of the recently unveiled R2. However, “the wheels are definitely in motion to get it to market as soon as possible,” the Rivian employee added.
The company will report its first quarter Earnings Results on May 7 after the market closing.
NEVER MISS AN UPDATE
The electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Rivian sent out last week a survey to all reservation holders of its recently unveiled R2 about which configurations, specs, and features customers and potential customers would prefer.
The company has recently expanded its leasing program to include four additional U.S. states, granting access to the $7,500 EV tax credit. The addition of Maryland, New Mexico, Virginia, and Alaska brings the total number of states on the list to 30.
As initially reported by EV, the company started recently a new round of layoffs to “support our goal to be gross margin positive by the end of the year,” as said in an email to Reuters.
Written by Cláudio Afonso | [email protected] | LinkedIn | X
