[JimmyEV]

E&E News put together a very interesting article that talks about how Rivian's plant in Normal, Illinois has impacted the community.

https://www.eenews.net/stories/1061188863

Something else might have made Rivian a good fit for Bloomington-Normal: the culture.

Even before anyone had heard of Rivian's founder, Scaringe, Bloomington-Normal hatched an ambitious initiative to make the cities ready for electric vehicles.

They called it EV Town and secured a $138,000 Department of Energy block grant from federal stimulus funds in 2011 to purchase and install four dozen EV chargers throughout the community. The city of Normal added EVs to its own fleet and offered residents $300 rebates on EV purchases, equal to about 1% of the 7.75% local sales tax.

 

[EyeOnRivian]

Nice article. For those looking for a TL;DR - IMO it's the following paragraph:

"These days, of course, Bloomington-Normal is known as EV Town for an entirely different reason. Rivian has a factory store in Normal, one of 20 markets nationwide where it's planning retail stores. Not long after, Tesla announced plans to open a service center in neighboring Bloomington, its first Illinois location outside the Chicago area."

I wonder if the Normal retail location is on the plant grounds or some where else, say, in town. And how can one find out the status of that retail location, meaning, when will it be open for business so I can take a road trip to check it out.

 

[R99]

Nice article. For those looking for a TL;DR - IMO it's the following paragraph:

"These days, of course, Bloomington-Normal is known as EV Town for an entirely different reason. Rivian has a factory store in Normal, one of 20 markets nationwide where it's planning retail stores. Not long after, Tesla announced plans to open a service center in neighboring Bloomington, its first Illinois location outside the Chicago area."

I wonder if the Normal retail location is on the plant grounds or some where else, say, in town. And how can one find out the status of that retail location, meaning, when will it be open for business so I can take a road trip to check it out.

Normal is going to see a spike in tourism once that retail location opens . I really enjoyed reading the article. It was interesting reading the part about the Chinese company in Indiana and comparing it with what Rivian is doing.

 

[JimmyEV]

Nice article. For those looking for a TL;DR - IMO it's the following paragraph:

"These days, of course, Bloomington-Normal is known as EV Town for an entirely different reason. Rivian has a factory store in Normal, one of 20 markets nationwide where it's planning retail stores. Not long after, Tesla announced plans to open a service center in neighboring Bloomington, its first Illinois location outside the Chicago area."

I wonder if the Normal retail location is on the plant grounds or some where else, say, in town. And how can one find out the status of that retail location, meaning, when will it be open for business so I can take a road trip to check it out.

I'd also like to know where this retail location is going to be. Wherever it is it's going to be swarmed by EV fans when it opens.