Rivian to delay construction of $5 billion factory in Georgia

“Our Georgia location remains really important to us,” Rivian Chief Executive RJ Scaringe said at an event Thursday where he unveiled two new sport utility vehicles. “It’s essential to accommodate all of these vehicles.”

One of the SUVs, called R2, is a five-passenger vehicle that is expected to be available in the first half of 2026. Originally, the R2 was supposed to be the first vehicle produced in Georgia. Moving production to Normal, Ill., where the company has an operating factory, will allow Rivian to begin delivering the vehicle to customers sooner, Mr. Scaringe said.

The R2 will have a starting price of around $45,000, it said, or $30,000 less than its largest SUV, the R1S. The R2, Mr. Scaringe said, “combines capacity, performance, utility, storage and features in a way that we think really fits a huge customer need.”

Rivian also introduced the R3, a compact SUV, as well as a high-performance version of that vehicle, the R3X. The company did not specify when or where these models would be produced.

Delaying construction of the new plant is a setback for Georgia and its governor, Brian Kemp, a Republican, who had promoted the construction as the largest economic development project in state history. Rivian had said it expected the factory to create 7,500 jobs and eventually produce 400,000 vehicles per year.