The Biden administration has finalized a massive loan to electric-vehicle maker Rivian just days before the Trump administration is taking office.
The $6.57 billion loan will finance an electric vehicle plant in Georgia where the company, which currently specializes in luxury vehicles, will make SUVs and crossover vehicles. The Energy Department, in a press release, described the vehicles as “mass market” rather than luxury.
The loan’s closure comes as the Trump administration is expected to seek to rein in climate spending broadly. Trump ally Vivek Ramaswamy has also criticized this loan specifically, calling it “insane” on social platform X.
“This smells more like a political shot across the bow at @elonmusk & @Tesla,” he wrote, referring to Elon Musk, who is slated to co-run a government efficiency commission with Ramaswamy.
The Biden administration says the facility financed by the loan will provide 7,500 operations jobs through 2030 and build 400,000 vehicles each year.
In addition, the administration closed a separate $1.66 billion loan to finance the construction of six facilities that will produce hydrogen energy.
As of the end of last year, the Energy Department’s Loan Programs Office had $41.2 billion worth of conditional loan commitments that had not been closed, though it has announced a few additional loan closures since that time.
