Electric vehicle maker Rivian has paused construction of its $5 billion manufacturing facility near Social Circle, Georgia, founder and CEO RJ Scaringe announced at the company’s R2 reveal event on Thursday.
The decision to halt the Stanton Springs North construction will reduce the amount of capital needed for Rivian to launch and deliver its R2 model to the market, the EV maker said in a March 7 press release.
Instead of Georgia, R2 production will start at the company’s facility in Normal, Illinois, expanding the plant’s capacity to 215,000 units a year. Production is expected to begin in the first half of 2026.
“Our Georgia site remains really important to us. It's core to the scaling across all these vehicles between R2, R3, R3X and we're so appreciate all the partnerships we've had there,” Scaringe said at the event. “But being able to leverage the team, the skill, the passion we have in our Illinois facility to get that into the market, to get that to customers… as quickly as possible, we're just ecstatic about.”
Total savings is estimated to be over $2.25 billion compared to the initial plans to launch the first R2 production line at the Stanton Springs North facility, the company said in the press release.
“The savings are expected to come from capital expenditures, product development investment, and supplier sourcing opportunities,” Rivian said.
Rivian has been cutting costs over the last year to conserve cash. Last month, the EV maker announced plans to reduce its salaried workforce by 10%. In February 2023, Rivian laid off 6% of its workforce. The company’s stock is down over 40% since the start of the year.
