The Biden-Harris administration on Monday announced a multibillion-dollar loan to electric vehicle (EV) maker Rivian as the company continues to lose money.
Rivian lost The company had sales of $1.1 billion, but sales fell by nearly $500 million in the third quarter of 2024 as slowing consumer demand for EVs hampered industry growth. Now, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has agreed to a conditional commitment to loan automakers approximately $6.6 billion to help finance the construction of manufacturing facilities in Georgia. According to To a press release from DOE's Loan Program Office (LPO). (Related article: Automobile giants make big bets on failures of EV and self-driving cars to reduce costs)
“This loan will create thousands of new jobs in the United States and help further strengthen America's leadership in EV manufacturing and technology,” said Rivian Founder and CEO RJ Scaringe. Probably.'' I wrote in a press release on Monday. “A strong ecosystem of American companies developing and manufacturing EVs is essential for the United States to maintain its long-term leadership in transportation.”
Big news for Rivian: DOE's $6.6 billion conditional loan will significantly ramp up R2 and R3 production at a new Georgia plant, potentially creating thousands of jobs. Learn more about what this means for Rivian below. https://t.co/KJ8NGlZL0f pic.twitter.com/EVjvRHIYAw
— RivianTrackr (@RivianTrackr) November 26, 2024
The Georgia factory will expand the Rivian factory in Normal, Illinois. produce The sport-utility vehicle will retail for about $45,000, significantly less than the roughly $70,000 price tag of the company's current consumer vehicles.
“This financing will enable Rivian to more aggressively expand its U.S. manufacturing footprint for competitively priced R2 and R3 vehicles focused on both performance and affordability.” Scaringe he said in a release.
The loan deal is part of outgoing President Joe Biden's policy. investing in america The Agenda directs nearly $700 billion in tax dollars to infrastructure, semiconductor and green energy projects. Much of the White House's subsidies are earmarked specifically for the EV industry, including a $7,500 federal tax credit for certain EV purchases and $12 billion in taxpayer funding for automakers to retrofit factories for EV production. There is.
Despite subsidies, the EV industry is seeing weak consumer demand and declining sales. is growing In H1 2024, it was only 31%, much less than the 71% increase in H1 2022. Meanwhile, a June poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the University of Chicago Energy Policy Institute found that 46% of respondents said they were unlikely or very unlikely to purchase an EV. In contrast, only 21% of respondents said they were “very” or “extremely” likely to purchase an EV.
“Even after pouring money into EVs and paying taxes to the public to basically drive these cars off the lot, there is still no evidence that (1) there isn’t enough demand to support the production numbers, or (2) that we don’t have to pay for them. People who bought it want to go back to what they had,” O.H. Skinner, executive director of Consumers Union and former Arizona attorney general, previously told DCNF.
Rivian and the Department of Energy did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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