By all indications, auto manufacturing is indeed returning to Normal, a central Illinois city that used to build Mitsubishi sedans and SUVs.
In October, the excitement was palpable whenRivian held an open house in the town circle, offering sneak peeks of its sleek prototypes, meet-and-greets with its CEO and founder, RJ Scaringe, and the promise of thousands of new jobs.
The rubber will presumably meet the road in late 2020, as the first vehicles — a high-performance electric truck and SUV — are expected to roll off the line at a former Mitsubishi plant being retooled on the outskirts of town.
“When you see what’s in this facility, I think the scale of what we’re doing is going to become more clear to a lot of people,” said Scaringe, 36.
Founded 10 years ago, Plymouth, Michigan-based Rivian is gaining momentum in its mission to become the Tesla of trucks, drawing more than $2.8 billion in investments last year from Ford, Cox Automotive and Amazon, among others. In September, Rivian announced it will build 100,000 custom electric delivery vehicles for Amazon alongside its consumer-focused truck and SUV.
When the Mitsubishi plant closed in July 2015 after nearly 30 years of production, it left 1,100 people out of work. In its heyday, the plant had about 4,000 employees producing more than 200,000 vehicles per year.
