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Rivian Will Not Spend $3 Billion in Its Second Plant: That Will Be $5 Billion

When Reuters broke the news that Rivian would have a second plant, it estimated the company would spend at least $3 billion. About $1 billion would go to the EV factory itself, but Rivian also planned to have a cell manufacturing facility in the same location, and they cost at least $2 billion. After checking the documents for “Project Tera,” Reuters discovered Rivian is willing to spend up to $5 billion.
Rivian Normal Facitily, Illinois 13 photos
Photo: Rivian
Rivian Normal Facitily, IllinoisRivian R1T and R1SRivian R1T and R1SRivian R1SRivian R1TRivian R1TRivian R1TRivian R1T and R1S InteriorRivian Skateboard PlatformRivian Skateboard PlatformRivian Normal Facitily, IllinoisRivian Normal Facitily, Illinois
The company does not lack funds for that. Rivian has so far raised $10.5 billion, $2.5 billion of which just last week. Its new factory will demand 10,000 acres of land, but economic development officials doubt it will find anything that big available.

According to Reuters, Arizona is the state that is closer to receive the investment. The piece of land would even be already defined as somewhere in the east of Mesa, close to the Gold Canyon. RJ Scaringe would have already talked to the governor Doug Ducey about it. The two factories in one would employ more than 10,000 people when they are fully operational.

The plans state that construction should start by the fall of 2021 and pump out EVs by the second quarter of 2023. However, the COVID-19 pandemic may postpone these plans by six months, making the building process begin in spring 2022 and operations start at the beginning of 2024.

As we said in our last article about the new factory, it will not produce the vehicles that Rivian already disclosed. For the R1T, R1S, and Amazon delivery van, the Normal plant in Illinois is more than enough at this point. The new factory will be for “future production and product plans,” as the document clearly states.

Again, we bet that Rivian will keep developing products with an adventure proposition, just like Jeep. Nobody in the EV landscape has tackled that market segment so far, and Jeep’s electrification efforts may not be fast enough to ensure it will be the reference in off-roading with a massive battery pack.
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About the author: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo
Gustavo Henrique Ruffo profile photo

Motoring writer since 1998, Gustavo wants to write relevant stories about cars and their shift to a sustainable future.
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