After months of delays, the first R1T pickup truck rolls off Rivian’s production line

Posted on September 14, 2021
Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe posted photos of the vehicles on social media.
(Photo courtesy: WJBC/File)

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!”

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.

Heartland Community College President Keith Cornell (far left) elbow bumps Gov. Pritzker (far right) as James Chen, Vice President of Public Policy and Chief Regulatory Counsel for Rivian looks on (middle) while on a visit to Heartland’s campus where a new training facility will be built. (Photo courtesy: Blake Haas/WJBC)

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].

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