Electric vehicle maker apparently chooses Georgia over Fort Worth for huge plant

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Amazon Rivian van in Fort Worth Stockyards courtesy photo

Fort Worth has apparently missed out on  a big economic development prospect.

Electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian is expected to announce Thursday it will locate a vehicle and battery production plant in Georgia after a nationwide site selection process that included Fort Worth and sites in Arizona.

The Fort Worth City Council in August approved a $440 million tax incentive package earlier this year in hopes of landing the electric vehicle and battery production plant to a site in west Fort Worth. The 2,000-acre site under consideration was in the Walsh development 12 miles southwest of downtown Fort Worth. 

But according to reports in the Atlanta Journal Constitution and Bloomberg, Rivian and Georgia state officials are set to make a big announcement on Thursday.

Irvine, California-based Rivian, a $10 billion startup with investments from Ford and Amazon, among others, had been seeking a second manufacturing site to build vans, SUVs and trucks. The Rivian plant is expected to produce 200,000 vehicles annually and would employ as many as 8,000 workers.

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Robert is a Fort Worth native and longtime editor of the Fort Worth Business Press. He is a former president of the local Society of Professional Journalists and was a freelancer for a variety of newspapers, weeklies and magazines, including American Way, BrandWeek and InformatonWeek. A graduate of TCU, Robert has held a variety of writing and editing positions at publications such as the Grand Prairie Daily News and InfoWorld. He is also a musician and playwright.