By Eric Stock

NORMAL – Local taxing bodies that have a stake in Rivian Automotive’s new plant in Normal will get a preview next week of the electric vehicles they hope will one day roll off the assembly line.

The Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council has arranged for a group of more than a dozen local officials to visit Rivian’s Plymouth, Michigan headquarters where they will see vehicle prototypes.

“Just to go get a behind the scenes (look), meet with R.J. (Scaringe) the CEO, and look at a lot of different things that they are planning for the plant down here,” EDC’s CEO Kyle Ham said. “Really it gives us a chance to figure out what it might look like in a couple of years.

Ham said Rivian will present vehicle prototypes though they won’t be released to the general public yet.

“This is where the secret sauce is of the vehicles that they are going to produce, the technologies they have,” Ham said. “So we’ll get to see some of those things behind the scenes they won’t release publicly for about six, eight months.”

Rivian plans to build an electric-powered five-passenger truck and seven-passenger SUV at the former Mitsubishi Motors plant.

Ham said Rivian has met annual benchmarks to receive the tax incentives. It has about 40 employees at the plant in Normal preparing for production.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].