Rivian wins $1.5 billion tax incentive package to build an EV factory in Georgia

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According to documents signed by the company and local officials in the state of Georgia, the state offered Rivian over $1 billion in tax incentives to build a factory east of Atlanta. It will cost $5 billion to build a factory that will eventually produce 400,000 electric vehicles a year. In order to receive the money, Rivian agrees to create 7,500 jobs, with an average wage of $56,000 a year, plus benefits, by the end of 2028.

Georgia officials say the agreement is the largest economic development deal in the state's history. Rivian expects to start making vehicles at the $5 billion facility in the summer of 2022. Rivian is planning to mass-produce 100,000 electric delivery vans for Amazon, as well as its R1T electric truck. The company is building electric pickup trucks at a former factory.

The long-term economic partnership promises to deliver value to Rivian, the people of Georgia and their kids.

Rivian didn't come out of stealth mode until after the LA Auto Show in 2018, when it introduced the pickup truck and SUV. It has been on an incredible rise since then. It went public in one of the biggest IPOs in US history and has hired thousands of employees.

Its stock price has plummeted in recent months due to supply chain constraints and manufacturing troubles. According to its most recent earnings report, the company pulled back on its ambitions by only producing 25,000 vehicles over the course of the next four years.

Good Jobs First, a group skeptical of subsidies to private companies, said it was among the largest windfalls to a private company in US history.

The New York Times reported that the plan to build a factory in Georgia has been a lightening rod for opponents.