The electric vehicle startup has had a year of milestones. It went public in November and delivered its first consumer vehicles, a pickup truck and SUV, according to Rivian’s third quarter earnings report. Amazon, a major investor in the company, ordered 100,000 of Rivian’s electric delivery vans. Atlanta’s Cox Automotive is also a Rivian investor.
Electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian Automotive Inc. (Nasdaq: RIVN) is planning a facility east of Atlanta that Gov. Brian Kemp calls the largest economic development project in the state’s history.
The $5 billion manufacturing facility is set to bring 7,500 jobs, according to the state’s Dec. 16 announcement.
Once the facility is built out, it will be able to produce 400,000 vehicles per year. Construction is set to start summer 2022 and be completed 2024, according to the company.
Stanton Springs, a massive industrial park in Newton County along Interstate 20, scored Rivian. The facility will span about 2,000 acres, said Jerry Silvio, chairman of the joint development authority of Jasper, Morgan, Newton and Walton Counties, which owns the park.
The manufacturing facility adds to Georgia’s growing electric vehicle supply chain. Building out the EV supply chain puts the state on the forefront of a high-growth industry and opens an array of economic development opportunities for the state and the region, Kemp said.
Rivian’s announcement puts a cherry on top of the massive amounts of growth Newton and its surrounding counties have enjoyed in the past few years. Facebook has two major data centers in the same complex where Rivian will be. A massive, mixed-use project in Covington aims to rival the success of Alpharetta’s Avalon, and the city’s film and tourism industry is growing.
Rivian Chief People Officer Helen Russell pointed to the local talent pool as a major factor in choosing Georgia. The plant will include “on the line” roles as well as technical and customers care positions with competitive wages, Russell said. It will mimic Rivian’s existing plant in Illinois.
South Korea-based company SK Innovation acted as a beacon for more EV supply chain companies with the 2018 announcement of two battery plants northeast of Atlanta. The company plans to employ 2,600 people by the end of 2023. Commercial production for the first facility could start as early as the beginning of next year. South Korea-based Duckyang announced its first U.S. manufacturing facility for electric mobility parts in the same county, shortly after SK Innovation settled legal disputes that initially delayed the project. https://f5de0f2233c9f066074b9e1700b79ec8.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html
Two other EV manufacturing facilities are on the way: a TEKLAS facility in Gordon County;= and a GEDIA Automotive Group facility in Whitfield County. Apple may also be planning to make its first autonomous, electric “Apple Car” at Kia Motors Corp.’s massive assembly plant in West Point.
