Bloomington-Normal Community Cheers Amazon's Big Rivian Order (purchasing, go bankrupt)

[OyCrumbler]

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/24/cars/...own/index.html

Here's an update of sorts on the Rivian plant in Normal.

A quick recap of what happened is Mitsubishi shuttered the plant in 2015 which left 1,000 full-time employees in the lurch after having a high of 3,000 employees working at the plant. It was purchased in 2017 by Rivian which was then still an under-the-radar electric vehicle startup. The plant is currently at 940 employees and plans to have three vehicles go into production this year with an additional 2,500 more employees on top of its 940 employees which would put it past the Mitsubishi plants peak employment numbers. The original intent was to launch into production in late 2020, but the pandemic delayed that into this year with a June launch of its pickup and an August launch of its SUV while its Amazon delivery vans are currently in use in a pilot program in a select few regions and will have its own production line. Supposedly their ability to launch multiple vehicles at once is that they focused their efforts on creating a single "skateboard" platform that makes it easy for bodies to built on top of which they refer to as the tophat. After these launch, Rivian will continue working on smaller, less expensive versions of the skateboard platform for smaller, less expensive vehicles.

[OyCrumbler]

https://www.wglt.org/post/rivian-fue...e-b-n#stream/0


Apparently this large influx of people due to Rivian has the real estate, home construction, and hospitality industries surging in the area.

[dtcbnd03]

That's great to see! My friend works for Rivian but does so remotely from Chicago. Their truck and SUV look awesome and I would buy one of those from a looks perspective over a Tesla. But from a software and self-driving standpoint I would still prefer a Tesla...I think they're gonna win that race in the end.

[madpaddy]

Originally Posted by dtcbnd03

That's great to see! My friend works for Rivian but does so remotely from Chicago. Their truck and SUV look awesome and I would buy one of those from a looks perspective over a Tesla. But from a software and self-driving standpoint I would still prefer a Tesla...I think they're gonna win that race in the end.

In the auto business, there can be multiple winners.

Rivian still has plenty of obstacles to clear before becoming a sustainable business, but the Amazon deal gives them a pretty good shot. Better than any of the other post-Tesla start-ups, IMHO.

[Justabystander]

More good news for Bloomington/Normal:

https://www.businessinsider.com/best...-buyers-2021-4
https://www.realtor.com/research/blo...e-home-buyers/

Bloomington number one in best markets for first time homebuyers

http://www.heartlandro.realtor/downl...eforecasts.pdf

Illinois real estate up 14% from last year.

[OyCrumbler]

Rivian just bought another 380 acres of land in Normal in order to get set for expansion: https://www.pantagraph.com/news/loca...c6b136f55.html


I don't like the property tax abatement part, but given that Rivian's original deal was for 300 full-time employees and they're now at 1,250 employees there, it sort of worked out.

[Curly Q. Bobalink]

Originally Posted by OyCrumbler

Rivian just bought another 380 acres of land in Normal in order to get set for expansion: https://www.pantagraph.com/news/loca...c6b136f55.html

I don't like the property tax abatement part, but given that Rivian's original deal was for 300 full-time employees and they're now at 1,250 employees there, it sort of worked out.

Are they going to re-name "Mitsubishi Parkway"? (or whatever it was called, it was the feeder to the plant off I-74, I think the route number was "150" or similar). Are they going to make their own batteries on site, or purchase them from somebody like Panasonic?

To be honest, I didn't give them much credence when they first announced they were buying the Mitsu plant, but they are gaining credibility. I hope to see them actually start selling vehicles en-masse, but they've got to get the first one on the road, to be honest. I see an Amazon van (a Sprinter?) on my street almost every day, these days.

[OyCrumbler]

Originally Posted by Curly Q. Bobalink

Are they going to re-name "Mitsubishi Parkway"? (or whatever it was called, it was the feeder to the plant off I-74, I think the route number was "150" or similar). Are they going to make their own batteries on site, or purchase them from somebody like Panasonic?

To be honest, I didn't give them much credence when they first announced they were buying the Mitsu plant, but they are gaining credibility. I hope to see them actually start selling vehicles en-masse, but they've got to get the first one on the road, to be honest. I see an Amazon van (a Sprinter?) on my street almost every day, these days.

Supposedly their large, luxury consumer pickup truck and suv launches next month. They've already got the Amazon vans in use in LA, the Bay Area, and Denver, so technically they already launched working vehicles. Hopefully they do Chicago and St. Louis launches for those vans pretty soon given how close these cities are to Normal. I reckon it's some combination of CA and CO having policies more favorable to electric vehicles and the colder weather guiding the decision to launch in CA and CO first before doing so in IL, though I wouldn't be surprised if Amazon starts using those vans in IL some time this year or the next.

I don't know if they're renaming the parkway--would make sense. They're purchasing the cells for now, but supposedly have been hiring for positions that could indicate battery operations.


I'm also pleasantly surprised that this seems to have worked out as well for Normal and IL as it did, because it does seem like a lot of times these targeted incentives specific to a company don't work out. That Foxconn plant deal in WI is an absolute cluster**** in comparison whereas the incentives for this plant was targeted towards getting 300 full-time employees and the plant's already at 1,250 full-time employees which is a massive difference.

[OyCrumbler]

Normal is now purportedly one of three finalists for a massive battery production plant and one of the factors is probably to be close to a major client: https://insideevs.com/news/526690/no...battery-plant/

[Rag King]

Bloomington/Normal........not a bad area. It is a white collar area dominated by residents with blue collar tastes. Drive up and down Veterans Parkway and observe endless crappy chain restaurants and fast food. There is nothing to do there if you are single - unless you like bar hopping.

If that area can evolve culturally, then great! Cultural issues notwithstanding, it is not a bad area to raise a family if you have kids heavily involved in school or park district sports.