Rivian mulls second EV factory in Texas, as Musk suggests they focus on first

Amazon-backed electric vehicle start-up Rivian Automotive is reportedly in discussions to invest at least $US5 billion in a new vehicle plant located near Fort Worth, Texas, planning a second factory before it has delivered a single vehicle for sale.

According to planning documents obtained by Bloomberg News, Rivian is being wooed by the City of Fort Worth’s  City Council, which proposed a number of incentives including grants and city tax abatement of as much as $US440 million.

The proposed factory, codenamed “Project Tera”, would be located on 2,000 acres and be able to produce around 200,000 vehicles each year and would create at least 7,500 jobs, all by 2027.

But Fort Worth is not the only locale Rivian has its eyes on for a second factory.

Two “people familiar with the matter” told Reuters in late-July that the company was also considering sites east of Mesa, Arizona, near Gold Canyon. An Arizona factory would make sense, as Rivian already has an engineering and test facility in Wittman, northeast of Phoenix, Arizona.

According to company planning documents obtained by Reuters, the target date to begin production at the second Rivian plant is set at 2023, with construction beginning in the Northern Hemisphere’s Autumn of this year.

“Rivian is in discussions with multiple locations as part of a competitive process for siting a second manufacturing facility,” Jim Chen, the automaker’s vice president of public policy, said in an emailed statement to Bloomberg News.

“This may include Rivian being involved in certain public-facing processes at potential locations. Involvement in these processes does not indicate a final decision.”

Rivian, which is planning to introduce its all-electric R1T ute (pickup truck) and R1S SUV in the coming months, is setting itself up as a rival to California peer Tesla.

Both Rivian and Tesla are based in California, a Mecca-of-sorts for start-up electric mobility companies. The company’s first manufacturing facility is located in Normal, Illinois.

Rivian also boasts the backing of online shopping giant Amazon, which has not only invested in the company but also ordered 100,000 electric delivery vans – the first of which began making their rounds earlier this year.

The news that Rivian is looking to build its second manufacturing facility came less than a fortnight after it was revealed that Rivian was in negotiations with the UK Government over a possible major support package to help support a UK-based EV manufacturing facility.

Never one to let an electric mobility headline go by without making sure his name was involved, Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter on in response to the news that Rivian was planning its second factory, suggesting that “they get their first plant working” before building a second factory.

And while Rivian will certainly need to soon begin producing results so as to attract the necessary investor capital and political support needed for their planned manufacturing facilities, the company is already taking pre-order holders for the R1T ute for test drives around Normal, Illinois.