Seven years ago, a mysterious startup called Rivian Automotive secured a commitment of nearly $50 million in state tax breaks to help it revive Normal’s auto plant.
It never got the money.
State officials confirmed Monday that Rivian has not received any of the tax breaks, part of the EDGE tax credit program, despite hiring significantly more people and investing more money in Normal than initially expected.
A Rivian spokesperson said they “chose not to pursue the EDGE tax credits.”
“The EDGE tax credits could only be used against corporate income tax liability. We did not have any corporate income tax liability at that time,” the Rivian spokesperson said.
The abandoned tax breaks have not been previously reported. It comes weeks after state officials announced a new assistance package for Rivian. This one is much bigger – up to $827 million, over 30 years – supporting another round of expansion and hiring in Normal. Most of that assistance will come from a different tax-credit program, called Reimagining Energy and Vehicles [REV], which also requires Rivian to meet certain benchmarks.
“We’re transitioning Rivian to the REV program,” Kristin Richards, director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO), told WGLT on May 2 when the REV announcement was made.
A DCEO spokesperson said the transition to the REV program would allow Rivian to "maximize their benefits under the statutory program that’s specifically designed to build out the EV sector in Illinois."
EDGE tax credit history
Rivian emerged in late 2016 as the buyer for the former Mitsubishi plant in Normal, which had closed. Rivian secured a combination of local and state incentives to do so, as long as certain hiring and investment thresholds were met.
The biggest chunk of those incentives was up to $49.5 million in state EDGE tax credits, announced by then-Gov. Bruce Rauner during a visit to the auto plant in 2017. The Town of Normal also promised a $1 million grant. Unit 5 and other local taxing bodies pledged property-tax breaks too.
Democrat JB Pritzker defeated Republican Rauner in the 2018 election. Five weeks later, Rivian asked to rework its EDGE agreement, according to state records obtained by WGLT.
“Although the company has incurred substantial non-capital expenditure costs for the plant, due to the extensive engineering studies done for the plant’s body shop, paint shop, general assembly, and the new battery production area, the company has changed its timing for significantly capital renovations in these areas, which has shifted $33.5 million of capital expenditures from 2018 to 2019,” Rivian’s then-corporate development VP Jim Thomas wrote in a letter to DCEO.
The request was granted. Rivian was now required to invest a total of $185 million and create 1,050 new full-time jobs in Normal by the end of 2024. (The original 2016 EDGE agreement redacted the minimum investment amount required; the 2018 version is not fully redacted.)
It appears Rivian has met those requirements. The company said this month that it’s already invested more than $2 billion in Normal. It employs over 8,000 people in Normal.
Rivian filed so-called corporate accountability reports with the state for some but not all of the years of the EDGE agreement. Those reports track a company’s progress toward meeting an EDGE agreement’s requirements. DCEO officials said they did not receive reports for 2019, 2020 or 2023.
“To date, Rivian has not received any EDGE tax credits,” DCEO officials said Monday.
Other assistance
Rivian also never received the $1 million Town of Normal grant that it was owed; that was also by design, though it was previously disclosed. The company announced in May 2020 – during the early days of the pandemic – that it was declining to accept the money because “the funds would better serve our community by remaining with the municipality.”
Rivian did get its property tax breaks. Rivian avoided paying around $3 million in property taxes over the five-year agreement, which has since ended. Property tax dollars fund Unit 5 schools and other local government bodies.
Rivian also indirectly benefited from $1.9 million in separate state assistance, secured in 2023 by the Town of Normal through the Illinois Department of Transportation’s Economic Development Program. That money was earmarked for improvements to West College Avenue near the Rivian plant, which also involved local matching funds. In exchange, Rivian pledged to hire 100 new full-time employees.
