Featured Image Credit: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images/PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
Topics: Jeff Bezos, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Money, Electric Cars, Cars, Tesla, Elon Musk, US News
Britt Jones
Topics: Jeff Bezos, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Money, Electric Cars, Cars, Tesla, Elon Musk, US News
President Joe Biden's administration has given Jeff Bezos’ Tesla rival a $6.6 billion loan to expand its US auto company.
It was announced on Tuesday that the U.S. Department of Energy will fork out the billions of dollars to the automotive company, which aims to bring more business in.
The company, which sees Bezos as the largest shareholder after investing $700 million into its car making plans, plans to build a factory in Georgia with the loan from Biden’s administration.
However, it is not known whether Biden can complete the loan before Donald Trump takes over the presidency in a matter of weeks.
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The money will come from the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program, which has a whopping $17.7 billion cash bank to give low-cost loans to companies that are creating fuel-efficient vehicles.
Although its primary focus has been on financing new battery factories for electric vehicles, it also assisted in financing the initial production of the Tesla Model S and Nissan Leaf.
Now, it’s helping Rivian Automotive.
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Rivian is an electric vehicle company that began trading in 2009, which is six years after Tesla began its journey as Tesla Motors in 2003 before changing its name in 2017.
Rivian recently partnered with Volkswagen to produce an electric Ford, and now that it’s being backed by the U.S. government, there’s only one way it can go, and that’s up from here.
But while Trump previously agreed that he would want to end federal electric vehicle tax credits, which cost up to $7,500 for new zero-emission vehicles and also $4,000 for used ones, it’s not too clear where he stands since Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO, was added to his team.
Rivian has been making a push towards expanding, having created the electric R1 SUVs in 2021, and then planning to build a larger, $5 billion plant east of Atlanta.
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But things went downhill for the electric vehicle company after their hopes for producing R2 vehicles led them to be unable to meet demands.
This is because its first phase hoped to create 200,000 vehicles each year and then an additional 200,000 during the second phase, leading them to project the need for 7,500 more workers.
In the end, the company burnt through the cash and ended up needing to pause production in Georgia, and switch their plans to their Illinois plant instead.
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Thankfully, Volkswagen said it would invest $5 billion in Rivian which would have the two companies share software and electrical technology as they collaborate on the new electric Ford.
Now that Biden’s administration is heavily investing in its future, the company has gone on to renew its plans to make the R2 and the R3 in Georgia.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, who asked Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to support the loan in July, went on to claim that the Biden announcement was ‘yet another historic federal investment in Georgia electric vehicle manufacturing’.
He said in a statement: “Our federal manufacturing incentives are driving economic development across the state of Georgia.”