Lincoln Rotary learns about electric vehicle production at Bloomington plant

 

[July 22, 2021] 

The Lincoln Rotary Club recently welcomed Laura Ewan from the Rivian Company who spoke about the development and production of electric vehicles that is being done at the Rivian production facility in Bloomington-Normal.

The speaker stated that Rivian currently has around 2000 employees and is seeking to hire at least 1000 additional employees. Ms. Ewan stated that the previous year they were manufacturing delivery vans for Amazon and have now begun manufacturing trucks. At the current time Rivian will sell their vehicles directly with pre-orders being made online.

Ms. Ewan also stated that Rivian hopes to have sites available where interested individuals can drive and look at demonstration vehicles. In regard to charging the vehicles, there are only a few public charging stations available at this time, but there are plans to establish additional stations across the U.S.

When a customer does purchase an electric vehicle, a docking station can also be purchased and installed at the customer’s place of residence by Rivian.

Finally, Ms. Ewan stated that one of the advantages of an electric vehicle is that they have a lower center of gravity which makes it difficult for them to roll over in case of an accident.

[Mike Starasta]