Libian is looking to break the ground early next year, resuming preparation work at its planned Georgia plant in August, according to TechCrunch, which was obtained in a public record request.
The rebooted effort comes months after the Biden administration’s Department of Energy approved a $6.6 billion loan for construction funds.
As of June 20, 2025, Libian had invested more than $80 million from $41 million in July 2024, according to a progress report submitted to the local co-development agency, included in the email. The project has generated 46 full-time jobs so far. According to the email, Libian began installing “Deep Utility” in August, and will be set to launch a “vertical structure” in the first quarter of 2026.
The company is also reaching out to existing suppliers to confirm what they would like to co-host near their Georgia plant, the email shows. Libian also asked the state’s Department of Economic Development for a list of regional suppliers who could potentially help build R2 SUVs and R3 hatchbacks at the factory when it opened in 2028.
In this push to resume the project, Rivian founder and CEO RJ Sculling met with Governor Brian Kemp at the end of May. The company’s director of corporate affairs told the governor’s office in an email that the meeting was a “first priority” for the company.
Libian spokesman Peebles Squire said the meeting between Scaringe and Gognletor was “regular check-in.”
“We discussed ongoing work in Georgia, discussed general project updates and how to continue to have strong partnerships with the state,” he wrote in an email to TechCrunch. The governor’s spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
TechCrunch Events
San Francisco
|
October 27th-29th, 2025
Libian first announced its Georgia factory in late 2021 shortly after the IPO. The company originally planned to begin construction in 2022 and start production of the vehicle by 2024. He has pledged to invest $5 billion in the facility.
The factory soon faced local opposition. The project took the back seat as Libian avoided supply chain shortages while ramping up an R1T pickup truck and R1S SUV at its original factory in Illinois.
Libian ultimately stomped back the Georgia Project’s timeline and supported expanding its regular factory, earning a $827 million incentive from Illinois. The company announced the delay in 2024 when it first unveiled its R2 SUV and R3 hatchback.
In late 2024, Libian announced it had secured $6.6 billion in loans from the Department of Energy’s Loan Program office. Specifically, the loan comes from the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Program, the same effort that helped Tesla navigate the Great Recession over a decade ago.
The loan agreement was finalised a few days before Donald Trump was sworn into his second term, and by that point the deal had already been targeted by some people on the new presidential trajectory. Vivek Ramaswamy, who was supposed to jointly lead Elon Musk’s government efficiency at one point, said he wanted to look into taking back the loan.
After Trump took office, his administration frozen all kinds of spending. Some of these freezes have been reversed by the Lower District Court, but the other freezes remain intact as the Supreme Court allowed them to operate more freely than they could.
In February, Gov. Kemp told the local news agency he wasn’t sure what the loan status was, as the administration was blowing away with shotguns from freezing these spending across the government.
(Squire said in an email that Libian is “along with the DOE and the administration, working to bring thousands of quality pay jobs back to the United States.”
Just a few weeks later, in March, Rivian, the emails show, began coordinating with the governor’s staff for Kemp and Sculling’s face-to-face. Originally scheduled to take place on April 9th, the CEO of Libian had to reschedule the meeting as “a personal conflict occurred.”
Andrew Capezout, Libian’s director of corporate affairs, said the meeting was “a top priority” in an email apologizing over the schedule.
When Capezzuto hashed out a new time for Scaringe and Kemp to meet, he was in regular contact with Georgia’s Economic Development Department (GCED), emails show.
“[W]He told the team on April 8th.
“I think GDECD prepared an overview of existing suppliers in Georgia and the Eastern Greater region a while ago. I would like to crush that list and use that list to determine if it is possible to leverage existing suppliers. [sic] Georgia supports SSN facilities. ”
In an email to TechCrunch, Squire said, “We have very strong automotive supplier bases in Georgia and the Southeast. We hope to leverage that base to optimize logistics costs and strengthen our strong supply chain. Regionally and nationally, they are well suited to promote American manufacturing and economic development.”
As Libian strengthens its suppliers’ activities, the company is beginning to hire workers to help build the factory. We’ve listed seven open rolls on LinkedIn within the last month, including one for Construction Manager.
Source link
