Report: Rivian To Announce Plan For Georgia Plant Soon

The announcement about a new vehicle assembly and battery plant is expected on Thursday.

By: Mark Kane

Dec 11, 2021 at 8:53pm ET

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According to a new unofficial report, Rivian might soon announce an official plan about its new manufacturing site for vehicles and batteries.

We already heard several rumors about various locations, including Arizona, Texas and Georgia. The latest report from Automotive News is also about Georgia.

According to undisclosed sources, the official announcement about a new production site in Georgia is expected on Thursday.

"The Irvine, California-based automaker, which had also considered competing sites in Texas and Arizona, is expected to reveal the plans at an event Thursday, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing the information before it's public. While Georgia has been selected provisionally, no agreement has yet been signed, some of the people said."

Currently, Rivian has one manufacturing site in Normal, Illinois, acquired several years ago from Mitsubishi and upgraded. It's used to produce the Rivian R1T and Rivian R1S, as well as the Rivian EDV and related systems (battery modules and packs and drive units).

Since the production capacity at the Normal site is limited to 150,000 annually (expected to be 200,000 annually after a further upgrade), a new plant would be necessary to expand the lineup and increase the volume toward the company's goals (at least 1 million per year by 2030).

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So far, Georgia has not attracted too many carmakers. Automotive News notes that there is a Kia plant in West Point near the Alabama border and two SK Innovation's SK On battery plants (one almost ready and one under construction) in Jackson County.

It will be very interesting to see Rivian's official announcement, which might give us the answer not only about the location of the plant, but also the new EV models in the pipeline. On top of that is of course the in-house battery cell production (100% in-house or a joint venture).