Rivian and the Division of Vitality have finalized a $6.6 billion mortgage introduced in November with just some days left till Donald Trump’s inauguration. The corporate will use the mortgage to assist construct out its deliberate manufacturing unit in Georgia, east of Atlanta, with building starting in 2026. The primary R2 SUVs are scheduled to come back off the road in 2028.
The mortgage comes from the Superior Expertise Car Manufacturing (ATVM) program, a part of the DOE’s Mortgage Applications Workplace. ATVM is most well-known as this system that gave Tesla a $465 million lifeline in 2009.
Rivian’s mortgage drew criticism from Vivek Ramaswamy, who is meant to be co-leading the so-called “division of presidency effectivity” with Elon Musk after Trump takes workplace. Ramaswamy mentioned he’d look to claw again the mortgage, although it’s unclear how he would strive that, and neither he nor Musk have defined precisely how they play to construction and function their new effort.
The mortgage is available in two tranches, which Rivian says it can use to fund the 2 levels of buildout it’s planning in Georgia. Rivian can borrow as much as $3.35 billion within the first tranche, and as much as $2.62 billion within the second tranche. (The remaining $600 million goes in direction of eliminating curiosity on the mortgage.)
Rivian has 52 months to begin drawing cash from the settlement. It has additionally made various guarantees to the DOE that it should fulfill to entry the funds. The corporate has to promote at the very least a sure variety of the upcoming R2 SUVs that will likely be constructed at its Regular, Illinois manufacturing unit. (The precise quantity is redacted within the mortgage settlement.) It additionally has to hit sure product design milestones on the R2 and R3 hatchback.
Rivian first introduced plans for the Georgia manufacturing unit in December 2021, just some weeks after the corporate’s blockbuster IPO. It initially claimed that it might begin manufacturing on the yet-to-be-built facility in 2024. However final yr, in a bid to chop prices, Rivian paused building on the manufacturing unit and determined to construct the R2 in Illinois as a substitute. Armed with the DOE mortgage, Rivian now believes it may possibly roll new autos off the road on the plant 4 years later than initially deliberate.
