Rivian

More people are commuting greater distances to work in Bloomington-Normal every day, with some traveling 60 to 90 miles to work here – and about a quarter of Rivian’s workers driving an hour to work each day. That’s according to an analysis of cell phone location data and tracking from Rivian itself.

Phoenix Investors doubled the facility's size as part of a more than $60 million project. Electric automaker Rivian has leased the existing building for storage, and plans to occupy the half-million-square-foot addition.

A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed against Rivian by a group of Illinois auto dealers who alleged the electric automaker was breaking the law by selling vehicles directly to consumers.

Electric automaker Rivian is getting faster at building vehicles – but still not fast enough to hit its annual production goal.

A coalition of businesses that includes Rivian is urging Gov. JB Pritzker to get Illinois to adopt new rules promoting electric trucks and buses.

Six years later, there’s increasing pressure to measure Rivian’s record by more than just its headcount. Some former and current workers tell WGLT the plant is a challenging and, at times, unsafe place to work.

Just this month, employees at a battery plant in Ohio voted to join the United Auto Workers (UAW) union – an apparent first for an electric vehicle or battery cell plant not owned entirely by the Big Three legacy automakers. The UAW would very much like Rivian to be next.

Rivian and Mercedes had planned a new joint venture manufacturing company that would build a new plant somewhere in Europe. It wasn't expected to impact Rivian's plans in Normal.

State Farm and Rivian are both contracting with clean energy providers to reduce their carbon footprints. State Farm said it's buying enough zero emission renewable energy to power its buildings in Bloomington.

Congress this year passed a new law that means employers can no longer force their employees into arbitration to resolve claims of on-the-job sexual harassment or assault. The electric automaker Rivian wants to do it anyway.