Rivian Automotive will move ahead with construction on a factory in Georgia early next year, the company confirmed Thursday.
The California-based electric truck company made the announcement as it opens a retail location in an intown Atlanta development, the eighth in a network of what the company calls “spaces” that it’s rolling out in select locations nationwide. The company plans additional locations in Colorado, Texas and California in coming months.
Customers can’t buy a truck or SUV at Rivian’s Atlanta location — the company only sells online to evade Georgia’s rules requiring auto manufacturers to have dealers. But the company hopes people who have already reserved one of Rivian’s vehicles or who are thinking about buying one will stop by to learn about electric vehicles, climb inside, take a test drive, and even buy a Rivian-branded jacket or backpack.
“We sell a physical product, so people want to experience it physically,” said Denise Cherry, Rivian’s senior director of design and retail development. “That’s human nature.”
Rivian currently produces its R1T pickup truck and R1S SUV at a factory in Normal, Illinois. The vehicles currently cost more than $70,000 apiece. It plans a $5 billion manufacturing complex for a site east of Atlanta, where it’s supposed to produce R2 vehicles with lower price tags aimed at a mass market. The company is supposed to eventually hire 7,500 employees at the site near Social Circle, where grading of dirt is supposed to be complete by year’s end.
