Rivian to Resume Construction of $5B Georgia EV Plant in 2026

Electrical automobile maker Rivian is getting ready to renew work on its paused $5-billion manufacturing plant in Social Circle, Ga., in line with the corporate.

The producer scheduled a ceremonial groundbreaking for September and is on observe to start building subsequent yr, firm consultant Peebles Squire says. The startup will nonetheless use its initially chosen contractor, Clayco, for the job.

The plan requires a 16-million-sq-ft manufacturing plant on an 1,800-acre campus. It is going to be in-built two phases, every including manufacturing capability for 200,000 automobiles, Squire says. 

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) initially introduced Rivian’s plan to construct the plant in 2021. In 2023, the corporate stated it selected Chicago-based Clayco to construct the ability, together with Jacobs as engineer and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill as design architect. However final yr, shortly after Rivian revealed a $5.4-billion loss over its prior fiscal yr, the corporate stated it could pause the project and produce an upcoming SUV at its current plant in Regular, Unwell., as an alternative of on the Georgia facility.

A couple of months later, Rivian introduced it could construct a $1.5-billion expansion on the Illinois plant. 

In January, Rivian closed a mortgage settlement with the U.S. Dept. of Vitality’s Mortgage Applications Workplace for as much as $6.6 billion to help the Georgia challenge, on high of an incentive package deal from Georgia price $1.5 billion. Beneath phrases of an financial growth settlement with the state, Rivian should make investments at the least $5 billion and create 7,500 full-time jobs by the top of 2030.

Final month, Rivian additionally introduced it could open an East Coast headquarters workplace in Atlanta, along with the manufacturing campus about 40 miles east of the town. That workplace is scheduled to open this yr, with an growth to observe. 

Rivian’s Georgia manufacturing plant is ready to start manufacturing in 2028, Squire says.