U.S. Energy Department Announces $6.6 Billion Conditional Commitment for Georgia EV Manufacturing Facility

The U.S. Energy Department on Nov. 26 announced a conditional commitment for a loan of $6.57 billion to Rivian New Horizon to build an electric vehicle manufacturing site in Stanton Springs North, Georgia. The nine million-square-foot manufacturing site could produce up to 400,000 vehicles, such as electric sport utility vehicles, or eSUVs. Through this loan, the department aims to reduce transport-based carbon emissions and significantly bolster the domestic EV manufacturing capacity.

Rivian’s new facility, known as Project Horizon, will support the Biden administration’s goal of increasing zero-emission vehicle sales to at least 50 percent of all new vehicle purchases in 2030. Project Horizon will expand Rivian’s production capacity to make its products more cost-competitive. Once operational, the EVs produced at the Georgia site could reduce annual fuel consumption by around 146 million gallons of petroleum.

The new Georgia facility, Rivian intends to manufacture its R2 and R3 models as the initial variants of its all-electric midsize platform. Rivian’s current production includes the R1S, a three-row electric SUV, and the R1T, an electric pickup truck. The company also produces commercial vans at its Illinois-based manufacturing site.

The Loan Program Office will oversee the conditional commitment for the loan through its Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing, or ATVM, Loan Program. Last week, the department finalized a $1.3 billion loan to ENTEK to produce EV battery separators.

The conditional commitment is one of the largest financial commitments from the department under the ATVM program in the past few years. The last loan of this scale under the ATVM program was a $5.9 billion loan to Ford Motor Company in 2009. The Project Horizon loan is also the first commitment to finance the production of entire EVs instead of EV components.