Georgia will provide Rivian with up to $1.5 billion in local incentives and tax credits in support of the automaker’s plan to build a new manufacturing plant outside of Atlanta. When Rivian announced late last year it would build its second production facility in Georgia, the company said it would eventually employ more than 7,500 workers at the facility and invest a total of $5 billion into the project. According to Reuters, the startup has until 2028 to meet those goals in order to access all the incentives offered by the state’s government.
The support package is notable for a few reasons. When the company announced the facility, it said it would pay for the expansion with funding it secured from its blockbuster $100 billion IPO. Amazon also has a 20 percent stake in the company, and an order for at least 100,000 electric delivery vans. But despite its strong financial backing, Rivian has struggled to actually deliver cars to customers. At the start of the year, the company delayed the delivery of its 400-mile R1T trucks to 2023. It also announced, and later reversed, a price hike for R1T and R1S pre-orders that led to a shareholder lawsuit.