By Blake Haas
NORMAL – The first full-battery electric R1T truck from Rivian Automotive is now on Illinois roadways after months of production delays.
Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe posted various photos on social media on Tuesday, showing blue R1T trucks rolling off the assembly line in the Twin-cities.
“After months of building pre-production vehicles, this morning, our first customer vehicle drove off our production line in Normal! Our team’s collective efforts have made this moment possible. Can’t wait to get these into the hands of our customers!”
After months of building pre-production vehicles, this morning our first customer vehicle drove off our production line in Normal! Our team's collective efforts have made this moment possible. Can't wait to get these into the hands of our customers! pic.twitter.com/8ZidwTaXRI
— RJ Scaringe (@RJScaringe) September 14, 2021
The California-based company has dumped over $1 billion into their manufacturing plant in Normal, which also is producing thousands of delivery vans for Amazon.
Rivian, who has raised around $8 billion since the start of 2019, has backings from major companies such as Ford and Amazon.
The plant in Normal will produce their R1T and R1S SUV vehicles.
According to a plant spokesperson, the workforce is expected to increase to around 4,000 employees sometime next year.
Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].