Rivian Displays New Electric Vehicles

NORMAL – This weekend Rivian held a public open house event showcasing new vehicle models.

Rivian set up in Uptown Normal bringing in many students, members of the community, and Governor JB Pritzker.

CEO Scaringe was in attendance at the showcase and engaged with people in Uptown Normal. 

Matt Tall, vice president of manufacturing for Rivian, talks about the impact they are hoping to have on the community.

“I think that in this day and age the community is extremely important, we can’t do it without them. The employees that come from the community have to be assets and not just numbers,” said Tall. 

Tall emphasized the importance of treating their employees well to create success as a company. He claimed is was the driving force behind Rivian’s vision.

The showcasing had many different activities located around Uptown. Some of those activities include rock climbing and a “Draw your dreams” section for kids. Inside, there was a showroom with merchandise and staff answering questions with a promotional video playing. 

The main attraction were two models, the R1T Pickup Truck and the R1T SUV. Both models had new features that further advanced the outlook of electric cars. Tall talked about the impact Rivian is hoping to have on the car industry.

“Electric vehicles is obviously the future, so anything that we can do to help the technology along offers a greater solution versus gas engines from an adventure standpoint,” said Tall.” So you should be able to take an electric vehicle up into the mountains, off into the country, visit national parks, which is really flipping the dynamic in terms of taking it to the next level for electric vehicles.”

Rivian bought the former Mitsubishi Motors plant in Normal and estimate to create 1,000 jobs in the community. 

Jose Sandoval contributed to this story.