Though I do not believe that we should or will see a complete fleet conversion from fossil fuels to electric vehicles, they certainly should be a growing part of the mix. And if the U.S. is going to be a leader in this space, we do have to assemble and build those EVs somewhere. As that industry is exploding globally, Georgia is staking a smart claim to be its U.S. home.
And like it or loathe it, we are well on our way. Hyundai/Kia is building a $5.5 billion EV plant near Savannah in Ellabell, Georgia in Bryan County. Rivian will build its second assembly plant, nearly twice as large as its first, in Stanton Springs, GA, an industrial park straddling the borders of Newton, Morgan, Walton, and Jasper counties off I-20 less than an hour east of Atlanta. The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) has site prep underway for a new interstate exchange for the Rivian Plant, which will spread across nearly 2000 acres, on the other side of I-20 from Stanton Springs's existing 1800 acres.
And last week, Morgan County Superior Court Judge Brenda Trammell quietly signed a bond validation order, following the Georgia Supreme Court's refusal to hear an appeal challenging the Rivian project's bond agreement by residents of the community of Rutledge in Morgan County. Previously the Georgia Court of Appeals had ruled in favor of the usufruct and bond issuance.
That $5-billion bond issuance was the key to the tax incentive package offered to recruit Rivian to select Georgia. In addition to gifting the site, this means Rivian will not pay property taxes (on their land and buildings) but will make Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOTs) as well as pay taxes on personal property (plant machinery and equipment), to the four counties in the Joint Development Authority.
Grading and site development on the Stanton Springs North Megasite started in 2022. Vehicle assembly is planned to begin in 2026. Rivian's technology development center will also be housed on the campus, in effect Rivian's R&D for future innovation and products. Rivian has also voluntarily invested millions in charging stations and infrastructure in Georgia state parks and additional public spaces across the state, as well as announcing a showroom location at Ponce City Market in Atlanta slated to open this fall.
Rivian's first plant is in Normal/Bloomington, Illinois, a college and insurance town (home of State Farm), in a refurbished but abandoned Mitsubishi Assembly Plant. Rivian has nearly doubled the plant’s prior employment and footprint in only a few years there. The plant sits among hundreds of acres of Illinois sweet corn, as well as quite a few sheep and heads of cattle, with an employee garden at the rear of their complex, next to the Rivian Customer Experience Center. On my visit there last year, a Rivian plant worker cooked us supper using produce from that garden on a camp cook stovetop that came right out of the side of an R-1T model Rivian pickup.
Those unique pill-shaped Rivian headlamps will soon be a much more common sight on Georgia roadways. Rivian customers order their preferred make and model online and then go to pick them up at a customer experience center. Rivian currently owns and operates all of its experience centers, versus the more traditional dealership network model.
Opponents of the project, as well as economic development incentives, argue against the incentives, as well as the lack of local input in those proceedings. Though I am no fan of usufructs, a similar deal near LaGrange, Georgia for locating the continually expanding Kia Plant and related suppliers there completely revitalized that area and dozens of counties in southwest Georgia, beginning in 2005.
Back in 1979, Greene County also near the Rivian site was among the poorest in Georgia. Georgia Power completed construction of the Wallace Dam on the Oconee River, creating Lake Oconee and its 374 miles of shoreline across Greene, Putnam, and Morgan Counties, and beginning a real estate boon and wealthy retiree relocation boom still rippling across that region today.
This significant judicial sign-off is an official green light to move this project forward and past the starting line, along with the battery plants and related suppliers and jobs which will also follow. Those engines have been idling and revving for quite some time, and having had the opportunity to test drive and experience a Rivian R-1T, I can attest they can make up a good bit of mileage in the most challenging of conditions pretty quickly.
