Rivian hosts R2 open house in Normal, its new production home

Among the many features that caught his eye, the R2 is the first Rivian built with a native port for the Tesla Supercharger network.

Last year, Tesla agreed to make its highly-rated charging network accessible to Rivian and other manufacturers, enabling it to tap into $7.5 billion of federal funding from President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law to expand public EV charging capacity.

Conner said the biggest selling point for the R2 was the $45,000 price tag. “What we don’t know yet are the final specifications,” he said.

Cassy Taylor, 55, of Lexington, who serves as the McLean County Administrator, was considering putting the $100 deposit on the R2 Saturday after seeing it in person.

Taylor, who drives a Subaru Crosstrek, has been eyeing a Rivian since it launched production two-and-a-half years ago. She said the R2 is a better size for her than the R1.

“They’re smaller vehicles, similar to the SUV I drive now,” Taylor said. “I think that might be more suitable for my needs and easier to park.”

Knowing that it will be built in Normal may have sealed the deal for her.

“It’s an investment in our community,” Taylor said. “And we’re really excited that they are making the cars here.”

Matt McLoughlin, 38, of Mackinaw, a test technician at Rivian since 2021, came to the event Saturday for his first look at the new models, which have generated a buzz among his fellow employees.

Set to go on break during the factory retooling, he used his first day off to get a glimpse of the future.

“I am totally excited for the opportunity to build the R2 in Normal,” McLoughlin said. “It is a huge opportunity for us.”

Rivian was initially lured to Illinois by $4 million in local incentives and about $50 million in state tax credits over 15 years if it meets employment and investment targets at the Normal facility. Those goals included creating 1,000 jobs by 2024, a number it has long since surpassed.

In addition to expediting production, Rivian may have had another motive for doubling down on Illinois — new financial incentives dangled by the state.

“DCEO has been in conversations with Rivian about potential incentives for its planned expansion,” said Eliza Glezer, a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity. “No incentives have been executed for the R2 expansion.”

While the shift of initial R2 production to Normal may be a near-term boon for the central Illinois plant, one prominent auto industry analyst predicted Rivian’s long-term manufacturing future remained in Georgia.

Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions, a market research firm, said Rivian may move production of the R1, R2 and R3 to the planned Georgia plant by the end of the decade, seeking improved efficiency, volume and a larger pool of assembly workers.

In such a case, the Normal plant may either be reduced to the narrower and more competitive lane of commercial EV production, or close entirely, he said.

“If the company is doing well, the likelihood of them building the second plant and moving there is high,” Fiorani said.

The Georgia plant likely won’t open until 2027, and its future may depend on the initial success of Rivian to ramp up production and sales of its next-generation R2 out of the Normal plant, Fiorani said.

“If they don’t start making money, and soon, the idea of moving to Georgia could be put on the backburner even further,” Fiorani said.

On Saturday, Scaringe dismissed that theory, reiterating his commitment to Georgia and Normal, which he said would be the production home to the R1 for the foreseeable future.

He also hinted that R2 and potentially R3 — which is built on the same platform — could be made in Illinois, even after Georgia opens.

“Normal will do R1, R2 and potentially more,” Scaringe said. “We’re anticipating many hundreds of thousands of units of demand, ideally over a million units of demand across the globe. That means we will have at least two plants producing the vehicle.”

When Rivian hosted its first open house in the Normal town circle in fall 2019, the sprawling plant on the outskirts of town was still a hulking shell and empty parking lot overrun by geese. Now cranes are hovering over the factory in preparation for the retooling.

On Saturday, kids frolicked in the green and a few local merchants set up booths around Uptown Circle, while an amplified coffee-shop guitarist kept the vibe upbeat but mellow. In addition to the new models, Rivian also parked several R1 EVs on the circle, offering canned water from the ice-filled frunk of a $70,000 pickup truck. Nearby, scores of attendees lined up for test drives in an R1.

The drivable R2 and R3 prototypes were for display purposes only.

The lanky, bespectacled Scaringe, his right arm in a sling from a mountain biking mishap, ambled through the crowd, casually greeting employees, customers and residents.

Reflecting on the open house five years ago, when he unveiled the first Rivian prototypes with little fanfare before the EV factory had been built, Scaringe, 41, thought about how far his auto company has come.

“I remember there were two cars — a truck and an SUV, early prototypes — and that was it,” Scaringe said. “And now there’s 100,000 vehicles on the road and we’re cranking one of those out every couple of minutes. It’s pretty wild.”