Rivian: 'We are not abandoning Georgia'

Executives for electric vehicle maker Rivian said Saturday the company remains committed to building a massive manufacturing plant 60 miles east of Atlanta despite a recent pause on construction.

The company recently pivoted its plans and is ramping up production of its new R2 SUV at its plant in Normal, Illinois. This caused some state politicians to worry that California-based Rivian would abandon its plans to build the sprawling factory site iI-20.

That’s not going to happen, Tony Sanger, vice president of facilities, said.

“By pivoting to Normal, we created some concern in the market and certainly with the legislators as to that we were abandoning Georgia,” said Sanger, who has moved to Madison to live near the plant site. “And that’s not the case. The news here is we are not abandoning Georgia. We will be back. We will be building because that’s where we get the volume we need for these vehicles.”

Sanger sought to allay any concerns as Rivian showed off prototypes of three new EV models at its Ponce City Market showroom. The R2 SUV, with an expected starting price of $45,000, should hit the market in the first half of 2026. There is no timetable yet for the company’s smaller SUVs — the R3 and R3x — but the company plans to eventually be producing all three of the SUVs at the Georgia factory, Sanger said.

But first, Rivian needs to produce the R2 at its existing factory in Illinois, he said.

“We just needed to get these vehicles, which have had such a positive response in the market, into the hands of consumers faster,” Sanger said. “The easiest way for us to do that and the most economical way for us to do that was to add capacity to the facility in Normal. ... Once we’ve done that and have ramped that facility, we’ll pivot back and build the facility here in Georgia.”

Rivian made waves in 2021 when it announced its planned $5 billion EV factory near Rutledge, what was at that time the biggest economic development project by jobs and investment in state history. The initial opening date had been scheduled for this year, but the timeline slipped.

In March, the company said it would put on hold vertical construction of the factory and instead shift production of the smaller R2 crossover it had planned to launch in Georgia to its existing factory in Illinois. The move should cut more than $2.2 billion in costs, the company has said.

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe has said Georgia remains important to the company’s expansion plans and that the EV maker would move forward with the factory along I-20 near Rutledge to help scale production of the R2, which is expected to be a volume seller for the company.

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