Rivian, Tesla’s awkward little brother who can’t seem to stay out of trouble, is limping through 2024. The stock? Down 45% this year. The vehicles? Barely trickling off the assembly line. The excuses? Endless. Blame it on part shortages, soaring costs, or just plain bad luck, but Rivian’s once-bright EV dream is looking like a nightmare.

Enter the U.S. government, stage left, carrying a $6.6 billion loan (and probably a lot of taxpayer eye-rolls). Courtesy of the Department of Energy’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program, this cash injection is supposed to help Rivian build its Georgia EV plant… a project slated to start cranking out cars by, oh, 2028. (Because what’s a little six-year wait between friends?)

The DOE assures us this factory is going to be huge for the economy. By 2030, it’ll create 7,500 jobs and pump out 400,000 EVs annually (or so the press release says). The plant is the supposed savior of Rivian’s R2 and R3 models: smaller, “affordable” (we’ll see), and meant to give the Tesla Model 3 a run for its money.

CEO RJ Scaringe is putting on his best optimistic face, saying the loan will “aggressively scale our U.S. manufacturing footprint.” Meaning? Rivian is desperately trying to stop losing cash at an almost impossible rate. Since its 2021 IPO, the company has already set $19 billion on fire, mostly on bespoke tech that no one seems to be buying.

(Source: Fortune)

Fun fact: Rivian hit pause on the Georgia plant earlier this year to save money (things were really bad). Instead, they decided to start building R2 models at their Illinois factory in 2026. But now, with this $6.6 billion loan, Georgia’s back in business—under one condition: Rivian won’t fight union organizing efforts at the plant. (Cue the cheers from unions and the silent grumbles from corporate execs.)

I’m not gonna blow smoke up you a**. Rivian is down bad and struggling compared to name brands like Tesla and Ford. Tesla churned out 1.3 million EVs last year, while Rivian is hoping to scrape by with just 50,000 in 2024 (a number that barely registers in a market where scale is everything).

To their credit, Rivian is trying to patch the holes. They’ve renegotiated supplier contracts, streamlined production, and forecast their first gross profit this quarter. But when you’ve burned through $19 billion since going public, these moves feel more like tossing a bucket of water on a house fire.

Oh, and did we mention the newly elected President Donald Trump?  He's vowed to ax EV tax credits altogether when he walks into the White House in January. (As if Rivian needed more bad news.)

This $6.6 billion handout isn’t Rivian’s first dip into the taxpayer cookie jar (and let’s be honest, it probably won’t be the last). The DOE has been showering billions on Tesla, Ford, and GM for years, so Rivian’s just the newest kid in the subsidy line. But skeptics are asking: Are we funding the future of EVs or just propping up another startup with big promises and an even bigger burn rate? And it’s hard to argue they’re wrong.

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Stock.News has positions in Tesla and Ford.