Rivian completes $6.6 billion loan for Georgia factory

There is Rivian and the Ministry of Energy concluded 6.6 billion dollars in loans were announced november Donald Trump’s inauguration is only a few days away. The company will use the loan to help build its Georgia plant east of Atlanta, which will begin construction in 2026. The first R2 SUVs are scheduled to leave production in 2028.

The loan comes from the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing (ATVM) program, part of DOE’s Office of Loan Programs. ATVM is best known as the program that gave Tesla a $465 million lifeline in 2009.

Rivia’s loan drew criticism from Vivek Ramaswamy, who is expected to co-head the so-called “department of government efficiency” with Elon Musk after Trump takes office. Ramaswamy he said he would try to repay the loan, though it’s not clear how he would try to do so, and neither he nor Musk have explained exactly how they are playing to structure and manage their new effort.

The loan comes in two tranches and Rivian says it will use it to finance two phases of its planned construction in Georgia. Rivian can borrow up to $3.35 billion in the first tranche and up to $2.62 billion in the second tranche. (The remaining $600 million goes toward eliminating interest on the loan.)

You have 52 months to start withdrawing money from Rivian agreement. He also made a series of promises to the DOE that he would have to keep in order to get the funds. The company must sell at least a certain number of the upcoming R2 SUVs, which will be built at its Normal, Illinois plant. (The exact figure is redacted in the loan agreement.) It should also hit certain product design milestones on the R2 and R3 hatchback.

Rivian first announced plans for the Georgia factory in December 2021, just weeks after the company’s blockbuster IPO. At first, it claimed it would begin production in 2024 at the yet-to-be-built facility. But last year, to cut costs, Rivian stopped building the factory and decided to build R2 in Illinois instead. Armed with the DOE loan, Rivian now believes it can roll new cars off the line at the plant four years later than planned.