A little good news for a change
Tuesday, Oct 15, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller
* WEEK TV…
We are about a year away from seeing [electric] vehicles on the road in Normal and industry leaders at Rivian Automotive say people should be excited for more jobs.
The future is now, or at least right around the corner for Rivian. On Sunday, residents got to see the pickup and SUV models with a glimpse of what’s to come with the company’s skateboard technology.
This was the first time the public and Governor JB Pritzker saw the models up close. Pritzker believes Rivian will boost our local economy.
“I’m thrilled though also for the people of Normal and for Illinois that we have manufacturing that is reviving in our state,” said Pritzker. “This is advanced manufacturing with an advanced vehicle that’s the leader in the world.”
* Center Square…
“I got to say I said ‘when can I get one, when is it going to be on retail so that some of us can go drive one?’ so I find out that maybe we are going to see them by the end of next year for consumption,” Pritzker said. “I’m really excited.”
* WJBC…
Company spokesperson Amy Mast said 139 Rivian employees are now working at the Twin-Cities plant. Within 18 months, she said the workforce will increase to 700 to 1,000.
* Pantagraph…
“There’s some changes we’re seeing on the outside, but what’s really happening is what’s on the inside of the facility. We’re bringing new equipment in. We’re making changes to the layout of the plant, the lines,” said [RJ Scaringe, CEO of Rivian Automotive]. “Once that’s set up, we’ll really start to ramp up, and that involves a lot of hiring. … As the facility starts to get into full-line production, we’re talking about thousands of jobs.”
* WGLT…
They’ve spent months demolishing the old equipment that Mitsubishi used to build cars, re-engineering and re-tooling the plant to make room for larger trucks, SUVs, and the 100,000 Amazon delivery vans that Rivian will produce, [Matt Tall, vice president of manufacturing at Rivian] said. Rivian’s batteries will also be made in Normal, and that equipment will start to be installed in December or January, he said.
“Obviously building 100,000 Amazon vehicles brings a different dynamic because of the size,” Tall said. “The sheer size is significantly larger than trucks, so you have to upsize everything in paint as well as through the body shop. But we’ll have a careful plan and be ready.”
Hiring is going “reasonably well,” Tall said.
Several jobs in Normal are now posted on Rivian’s website, including maintenance technician, battery manufacturing engineer, facilities engineer, packaging engineer, and quality assurance engineer. Among the most important jobs are the 500 to 600 team members who will be doing assembly work, said Tall, who most recently was building Mercedes Benz vehicles in Indiana.
- Chicagonk - Tuesday, Oct 15, 19 @ 12:22 pm:
Rivian has definitely been a pleasant surprise.
- Ebenezer - Tuesday, Oct 15, 19 @ 12:35 pm:
It goes against my temperament to say this:
This is good news. No caveats, just good news.
- Rudiforte - Tuesday, Oct 15, 19 @ 12:35 pm:
Yeah, this is very welcome news for central Illinois. Bloomington has lost quite a few jobs over the last 10 years.
- Benjamin - Tuesday, Oct 15, 19 @ 12:43 pm:
Fingers crossed that everything keeps going well and the trucks sell well.
- Central Illinois Center Right - Tuesday, Oct 15, 19 @ 12:45 pm:
Excellent news. Not only for the jobs at the plant, but hopefully second level suppliers, etc. Not to mention the culture this type of company could bring
- Blue Dog Dem - Tuesday, Oct 15, 19 @ 12:50 pm:
Until Rivian signs up with the UAW i perceive this as bad news. The 100,000 Amazon vehicles would more than likely be union produced.
- Not a Billionaire - Tuesday, Oct 15, 19 @ 12:53 pm:
If electrical motors become cheap. They will also be easier to make and need fewer workers. It’s one of the issues GM and the UAW are discussing. The Bloomberg article was subtitled thevwont need us anymore.
But there is no stopping the future and its here in Illinois. Btw. I got the catalog for the auction it was state of the art equipment for building cars now its junk. The cleanup meant the stuff at auction didnt sell.
- Blue Dog Dem - Tuesday, Oct 15, 19 @ 1:14 pm:
Anony. With his track record, it doesnt surprise me a bit JB will be the first one in line.
- Grandson of Man - Tuesday, Oct 15, 19 @ 2:19 pm:
This is good news and highlights a stark difference between JB and Rauner, who had no faith we’re worthy of corporate investment.
As far as JB and unions, as governor he’s been great so far, with the capital bill, casinos, pro-union legal marijuana bill language that he helped enact and, of course, the AFSCME contract. Hopefully this will go well for UAW, unlike the paternalistic RTWFL South, where workers let Big Daddy (big corporate bosses) make economic decisions for them. If nothing changes, we should expect JB to have a lot of union support for re-election.
- revvedup - Tuesday, Oct 15, 19 @ 2:54 pm:
Nice to see some manufacturing coming IN to Illinois instead of leaving.
- Blue Dog Dem - Tuesday, Oct 15, 19 @ 8:58 pm:
Any wagers on Illinois union membership after the JB era.
- Rudiforte - Tuesday, Oct 15, 19 @ 9:19 pm:
I imagine union membership will be relatively stable with declines in private union members and increases in public employee unions.
- Not a Billionaire - Wednesday, Oct 16, 19 @ 3:45 am:
If batteries can run SUVs and Amazon delivery vehicles and they can all be built in one plant then this is huge. It’s the end of fossil fuels. By big oil. By corrupt Petro states like Russia Iran and SA. It means Illinois becomes ascendant again as a key manufacturing state and Texas….is a big Petri state too.
- Blue Dog Dem - Wednesday, Oct 16, 19 @ 6:55 am:
Not a billionaire. Yup. Almost sounds to good to be true….
- Not a Billionaire - Wednesday, Oct 16, 19 @ 9:02 am:
Used to happen all the time between 1870 and 1970 and then a funk. Horses disappeared in a decade. So finally is happening again . Happening in meat and energy / transportation.