MORGAN COUNTY, Ga. — After years of delays, construction is finally underway on a $5 billion Rivian facility in northeast Georgia.
Leaders of the electric car manufacturer hope that the new factory will bring 7,500 jobs to the area. And if they hit the hiring goal, the state is offering $1.5 billion.
Channel 2’s Michael Doudna was there as Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe and more broke ground on the facility in Morgan County.
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“We don’t take this lightly. We fully recognize the importance of this to the community,” Scaringe said.
Channel 2’s Linda Stouffer hopped into an R1 SUV with Kemp and Scaringe for an exclusive conversation about what the new facility means.
“We’re very, very excited about this thing finally getting here. It’s been a long time coming,” Kemp said.
Scaringe says that once completed, this facility will be their global manufacturing hub.
“This will not only support the United States, but this is importantly going to support sales in Europe,” Scaringe said.
Both Kemp and Scaringe agree that the workforce is key to a major facility like this.
“One of the key reasons we’ve decided on Georgia, the workforce is just incredible both in terms of the education level and the education system, and, you know, we look at work ethic as something that’s really important,” Scaringe said.
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Federal tax incentives for electric vehicles went away earlier this year, but Scaringe says this won’t affect the facility.
“We never designed the business, certainly enough for the site we’re talking about here, around incentives. So we always expected in the long term for those to go away,” he said.
But not everyone in the area supports the project.
“They picked the wrong county,” Joellen Artz said. “We don’t care that Rivian builds electric vehicles. We care about the water supply, which is polluted.”
Artz is part of a group pushing back against the plant, saying the county isn’t ready for the development and it would hurt the environment.
The first “Made in Georgia” Rivian vehicles are expected to roll out in 2028.
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