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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
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.