A Rivian electric vehicle factory is under consideration for construction in North Texas and could possibly rival Tesla’s electric vehicle plant or “Gigafactory” which is currently under construction in Austin, Texas.
Rivian Automotive, based in Irvine- California is a company that is backed by both Ford and Amazon and has announced that they would invest at least US$5 billion to build this factory with the capacity to produce 200,000 vehicles a year.
The Fort Worth EDC proposed an economic development package with Rivian that would include up to US$440 million in grants and county tax abatements, according to an announcement from Rivian.
Although Rivian’s facility would be primarily factory rather than office space, it would employ more than twice as many workers as Toyota’s 2.1 albeit at lower average salaries, and be more than five times the million-square-foot corporate headquarters complex on 100 acres in Plano.
This project would have five times the capital investment as Toyota’s, which is widely currently known as one of North Texas’s most impactful economic and biggest development wins ever. Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO has boasted the so-called GigaTexas project as the largest automotive manufacturing facility in the United States.
The plant is being built on just over 2,480 acres Tesla purchased last year. In a presentation the company gave to Travis County officials, the electric automaker said that they will hire at least 5,000 employees to work at the facility.
While a number of states and cities are still under consideration, the Texas site has become the front-runner for the Rivian electric vehicle factory. The company, and in particular R.J. Scaringe, the CEO, had previously been keen on a location in Arizona but concerns were raised around the available infrastructure, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information.
Robert Sturns, the director of economic development for Fort Worth, said in an email that the city is “very excited to be a finalist for this project and looks forward to continuing the process.”
