Rivian Wins Georgia Over—and Gets a Massive Incentive Deal

• Rivian announced late last year it would build a second US assembly plant, this one in the state of Georgia.

• The new plant will be capable of producing up to 400,000 vehicles a year at its operational peak, with the automaker planning to employ over 7500 workers at the facility.

• The Georgia Department of Economic Development recently announced it is extending the EV maker a $1.5 billion economic incentive package.
  

Governors like few things more than to “win” a new factory that will employ thousands of blue-collar workers in their state, even at the cost of free land and tax incentives. And there is nothing more attractive factory-wise than a new auto assembly plant.

Rivian is the beneficiary of such attention from the Georgia Department of Economic Development, which this month announced a $1.5-billion economic incentive package including “payments in lieu of taxes to [the Joint Development Authority] in year one [2023] of the factory project.” The electric truck wundermaker hopes to break ground this summer.

In return, Rivian will spend $5 billion on its new factory by the end of 2028, for maximum capacity of 400,000 EV pickup trucks, sport/utility vehicles, Amazon Prime electric delivery vans and whatever else it might cook up in the next six years. Based in Irvine, California, Rivian assembles its EV trucks, for now, out of Mitsubishi’s old Normal, Illinois plant, which has a capacity of only 150,000 per year—not nearly enough to compete with Tesla, let alone the likes of the Ford F-150 Lightning or the GMC Hummer and Chevrolet Silverado EV.

Rivian hasn’t had the smoothest ride to this incentive deal, first announced by Gov. Brian Kemp last December. At a Republican gubernatorial candidate debate in early March, challenger David Perdue criticized Kemp’s deal.

Both Kemp and Perdue are Republicans, one of whom will run against Democrat Stacey Abrams in November. But Kemp is the Republican governor who refused to investigate ballots in Donald J. Trump’s loss in Georgia in 2020, and Perdue is the former US senator, endorsed by Trump, who in a January 2021 state runoff lost re-election to Democrat Jon Ossof.

“Kemp thought he could get away with this under the guise of ‘economic development,’ but all he is doing here is selling us out and lining George Soros’ pockets.”

Yes, that George Soros, the left-wing billionaire. Rivian, through a spokeswoman, confirmed that Soros has invested in Rivian, along with Ford Motor Company and Amazon.

At meeting last April of the state’s Environmental Impact Division, what has been described as about a dozen homeowners in Rutledge, Georgia, (population of less than 900), which abuts the 2000-acre “carbon-conscious” future factory site, said they fear possible well-water contamination, light pollution, and disruption of wildlife habitats and farmlands.

There is no apparent connection between Perdue’s political attack and the opposition by Rutledge’s citizens, who last posted an update about an April 25 meeting with the JDA on their Facebook page, “Rutledge, GA, Small but Special”: “Gov. Kemp is already buying the land in both counties for $125 million and then giving the company half a billion in incentives with our state taxes.”

They make valid points about the factory’s potential noise and light pollution, Rutledge’s mayor, Bruce Altznauer says, but he says the majority of the townspeople, including himself, want Rivian, its 7500 jobs, and estimated additional 7978 new, indirect jobs for the region.

“I really believe they are in the minority,” Altznauer says. “They always say, ‘We want progress, but we don’t want change.’” The locals like to say, “What’s in Rutledge? Nothing. And we like it that way.’”

Altznauer adds that some of the opposition may be from residents who didn’t get the sort of lucrative offers for their property that their neighbors received.

As for the “half a billion” in incentives Perdue cited in the debate, it seems generous relative to the $1.5 billion actually offered. But Rivian’s $1.5-billion package is in-line with previous incentive packages, when considering the EV maker plans to hire 7500 workers over the next six years at an average of $56,000 per year.

Kia, which runs Georgia’s only other auto assembly plant, received about $410 million in incentives in 2009, according to the Memphis Business Journal, (Tennessee was competing for the location bid).

Auto battery-maker SK Innovation will receive $300 million in tax incentives and free land for its factory about 50 miles north of Rivian’s, where it will employ about 2600, and “could cement Georgia’s place as the Southeastern US hub for the electric battery and vehicle market,” reports the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

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