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Stealth EV startup Rivian receives $50M state tax credit and praise from IL Governor
Secret electric vehicle startup Rivian Automotive continues to stride towards its goal to produce a line of self-driving cars aimed at the future. We recently reported that Rivian finalized their purchase of the massive Mitsubishi factory in Normal, IL in January with goals of starting production in 2020.
Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner met with Rivian last Wednesday to announce that the company will receive $49.5M in Edge tax credits from the state, provided they meet employment benchmarks. Edge tax credits which stands for “Economic Development for a Growing Economy” allow businesses to receive the state’s income tax revenue from employees.
Founded in 2009, Rivian has been operating in stealth mode for the last six years as the company underwent intense product development. The company was founded to create something completely different than any other competitors out there. The planned vehicle is described as, “sports-car quick, but a vehicle your whole family can fit into.”
Rivian’s founder RJ Scaringe has a doctorate from MIT’s Sloan Automotive Laboratory. Scaringe said that his interest in vehicles started at a very young age, and tinkered with cars throughout his life. While at MIT, Scaringe considered dropping out to pursue starting up his own automotive company. Eventually, after fielding a few investment offers, he decided to stay at MIT and finish up his degree.
Rivian purchased the Normal, Illinois plant for $2M in January, which doesn’t include the factory’s equipment that was purchased in a separate transaction. This strategy is very similar to one employed by Tesla when it first acquired the NUMMI plant in Fremont. Start-up manufacturers Lucid Motors and Faraday Future are heading a different route by building their factories from scratch.
“It’s essentially a new plant; it was commissioned in 1990. Mitsubishi did a great job keeping up with all of the equipment and invested massively in the early 2000’s, so the robotics are all in great shape. The paint shop is in great shape, the stamping operation is incredible. So it really is a unique facility, with millions of dollars of equipment sitting inside of it. We are really lucky we have found it!”
Governor Rauner expressed a deep interest in what the company is doing and the potential impact it could have on the state. Rivian’s deal with the state requires them to create 1,000 jobs over the next ten years, which is similar to the deal they struck with the local municipalities.
“I’ve spent 45 minutes talking with RJ, talking strategy and product development and it’s incredible what he’s doing… We are hoping to move many of their people here in Illinois, we are working with them on that, ” said Rauner in a public comment during the event at Rivian’s factory. Rauner previously founded and ran private equity firm GTCR, assets over $11B, and has a long track record of success in the business world with a net worth rumored to be above $1B.
While the company has not revealed their board of directors, former managing director of Mclaren Automotive Antony Sheriff lists himself as a member of the board on his LinkedIn. Sheriff is also on the board at Rimac Automotive and is the Executive Chairman of Princess Yachts. Scaringe said the company isn’t ready to announce how they are being funded currently but said that would eventually be revealed.
Stay tuned for more exclusive coverage from Teslarati as we learn more about Rivian’s exciting future and explore the company’s plans.
Tesla has expanded its branded ‘For Business’ Supercharger program that it launched last year, as yet another company is using the platform to attract EV owners to its business and utilize a unique advertising opportunity.
Francis Energy of Oklahoma is launching four Superchargers in Norman, where the University of Oklahoma is located. The Superchargers, which are fitted with branding for Francis Energy, will officially open tomorrow.
It will not be the final Supercharger location that Francis Energy plans to open, the company confirmed to EVWire.
Back in early September, Tesla launched the new “Supercharger for Business” program in an effort to give businesses the ability to offer EV charging at custom rates. It would give their businesses visibility and would also cater to employees or customers.
“Purchase and install Superchargers at your business,” Tesla wrote on a page on its website for the new program. “Superchargers are compatible with all electric vehicles, bringing EV drivers to your business by offering convenient, reliable charging.”
The first site opened in Land O’ Lakes, Florida, which is Northeast of Tampa, as a company called Suncoast launched the Superchargers for local EV owners.
Tesla launches its new branded Supercharger for Business with first active station
The program also does a great job at expanding infrastructure for EV owners, which is something that needs to be done to encourage more people to purchase Teslas and other electric cars.
Francis Energy operates at least 14 EV charging locations in Oklahoma, spanning from Durant to Oklahoma City and nearly everywhere in between. Filings from the company, listed by Supercharge.info, show the company’s plans to convert some of them to Tesla Superchargers, potentially utilizing the new Supercharger for Business program to advertise.
Moving forward, more companies will likely utilize Tesla’s Supercharger for Business program as it presents major advantages in a variety of ways, especially with advertising and creating a place for EV drivers to gain range in their cars.
Tesla Cybercab is perhaps the most highly-anticipated project that the company plans to roll out this year, and as it is undergoing its testing phase in pre-production currently, there are some things to work through with it.
Over the weekend, an image of the Cybercab being loaded onto a tow truck started circulating on the internet, and people began to speculate as to what the issue could be.
Hmmmmmm… https://t.co/L5hWcOXQkb pic.twitter.com/OJBDyHNTMj
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) January 11, 2026
The Cybercab can clearly be seen with a Police Officer and perhaps the tow truck driver by its side, being loaded onto, or even potentially unloaded from, the truck.
However, it seems unlikely it was being offloaded, as its operation would get it to this point for testing to begin with.
It appears, at first glance, that it needs assistance getting back to wherever it came from; likely Gigafactory Texas or potentially a Bay Area facility.
The Cybercab was also spotted in Buffalo, New York, last week, potentially undergoing cold-weather testing, but it doesn’t appear that’s where this incident took place.
It is important to remember that the Cybercab is currently undergoing some rigorous testing scenarios, which include range tests and routine public road operation. These things help Tesla assess any potential issue the vehicle could run into after it starts routine production and heads to customers, or for the Robotaxi platform operation.
This is not a one-off issue, either. Tesla had some instances with the Semi where it was seen broken down on the side of a highway three years ago. The all-electric Semi has gone on to be successful in its early pilot program, as companies like Frito-Lay and PepsiCo. have had very positive remarks.
The Cybercab’s future is bright, and it is important to note that no vehicle model has ever gone its full life without a breakdown. It happens, it’s a car.
Nevertheless, it is important to note that there has been no official word on what happened with this particular Cybercab unit, but it is crucial to remember that this is the pre-production testing phase, and these things are more constructive than anything.
Tesla analyst Andrew Percoco of Morgan Stanley teased the company’s dominance in its self-driving initiative, stating that its lead over competitors is “not even close.”
Percoco recently overtook coverage of Tesla stock from Adam Jonas, who had covered the company at Morgan Stanley for years. Percoco is handling Tesla now that Jonas is covering embodied AI stocks and no longer automotive.
His first move after grabbing coverage was to adjust the price target from $410 to $425, as well as the rating from ‘Overweight’ to ‘Equal Weight.’
Percoco’s new note regarding Tesla highlights the company’s extensive lead in self-driving and autonomy projects, something that it has plenty of competition in, but has established its prowess over the past few years.
He writes:
“It’s not even close. Tesla continues to lead in autonomous driving, even as Nvidia rolls out new technology aimed at helping other automakers build driverless systems.”
Percoco’s main point regarding Tesla’s advantage is the company’s ability to collect large amounts of training data through its massive fleet, as millions of cars are driving throughout the world and gathering millions of miles of vehicle behavior on the road.
This is the main point that Percoco makes regarding Tesla’s lead in the entire autonomy sector: data is King, and Tesla has the most of it.
One big story that has hit the news over the past week is that of NVIDIA and its own self-driving suite, called Alpamayo. NVIDIA launched this open-source AI program last week, but it differs from Tesla’s in a significant fashion, especially from a hardware perspective, as it plans to use a combination of LiDAR, Radar, and Vision (Cameras) to operate.
Percoco said that NVIDIA’s announcement does not impact Morgan Stanley’s long-term opinions on Tesla and its strength or prowess in self-driving.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang commends Tesla’s Elon Musk for early belief
And, for what it’s worth, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang even said some remarkable things about Tesla following the launch of Alpamayo:
“I think the Tesla stack is the most advanced autonomous vehicle stack in the world. I’m fairly certain they were already using end-to-end AI. Whether their AI did reasoning or not is somewhat secondary to that first part.”
Percoco reiterated both the $425 price target and the ‘Equal Weight’ rating on Tesla shares.
Tesla expands its branded ‘For Business’ Superchargers
Tesla Cybercab ‘breakdown’ image likely is not what it seems
