Rivian says $6.6B federal loan draw will begin after Georgia plant construction starts in 2026

NOTE: This article has been rewritten to reflect corrections made by Rivian representatives who reached out to Cryptopolitan.

EV giant Rivian has confirmed it won’t delay tapping its $6.6 billion U.S. federal loan until a new factory is completely built.

Instead, the company now says it expects to begin drawing on the funds once construction starts in 2026, not after the plant is finished. Production at the site is still set for 2028, but those two timelines aren’t tied together.

This correction comes after CFO Claire McDonough clarified Rivian’s earlier statements in Detroit. While she told reporters that the company would use the loan before production begins, a misreported interpretation claimed the drawdown would only happen after construction was complete. That part is wrong.

“We haven’t shared exact timing of when we plan to start drawing on the loan,” Rivian said in a follow-up. “But we’ve said that we plan to start the first phase of construction on the plant in 2026.”

The original loan approval came in January, right before President Joe Biden’s term ended. That makes this federal financing a politically sensitive subject.

President Donald Trump has attacked programs like this, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright already said in May that his office might pull back on several Biden-era loans.

Rivian’s future drawdown could happen just as the 2028 U.S. election cycle hits full steam, making it vulnerable to political interference.

Construction kicks off in 2026 while Illinois plant ramps up R2 output

Rivian’s new factory in Georgia will support production of its next-gen R2 SUV and a second, smaller model known as R3. The company expects to begin building the site in 2026, with full production of vehicles scheduled for 2028.

Until then, Rivian will launch the R2 platform at its current factory in Normal, Illinois starting in 2026. That’s where it’s aiming to hit profitability. According to Claire, the Illinois facility must reach 200,000 vehicles per year to push Rivian into the green.

“Ramping up the Normal facility to 200,000 would get us to Ebitda,” she said, referring to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.

Right now, Rivian is far from that target. Back in August, the company forecast a full-year adjusted EBITDA loss of up to $2.25 billion. Claire said the Georgia factory expansion and the Normal plant ramp-up are both critical to reversing that number by 2028.

The company had originally paused its Georgia factory plans last year as part of a cost-saving effort, but reactivated them after securing the federal loan.

However, the loan’s conditions mean Rivian must contribute equity upfront before any disbursements can happen. That’s the key technical detail Bloomberg got wrong. The plant does not need to be completed to access the funds, just under construction.

Scaringe says Xiaomi SU7 teardown revealed nothing on how China keeps prices low

While all that’s happening, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe has been taking a closer look at the competition. He revealed that the company recently tore down a Xiaomi SU7, the Chinese EV priced at about $30,000, or 215,900 yuan.

Rivian has been getting attention worldwide, even Ford CEO Jim Farley imported one to drive himself.

Scaringe admitted he was impressed by the car’s quality and platform. He called it a “really well executed, heavily vertically-integrated technology platform”, and said that if he lived in China, it’d be on his shortlist.

But after analyzing the vehicle, Rivian engineers found no secret behind its low price. “We learned nothing from the teardown,” Scaringe said, adding that the real reason is China’s massive government support for EV makers.

In his words, “The cost of capital is zero or negative, meaning they get paid to put up plants.” That kind of environment doesn’t exist in the U.S., and Scaringe made it clear Rivian can’t compete on those terms.