Tornado damaged Rivian's Illinois factory weeks before R2 SUV launch

A tornado struck Rivian $RIVN's manufacturing plant in Normal, Illinois over the weekend, damaging a building used for R2 electric SUV logistics and parts storage weeks before the vehicle's planned launch.

According to CNBC, the National Weather Service classified the twister as EF-1, with top wind speeds reaching 100 mph; it struck a recently built section of the facility that Rivian refers to internally as "Building 2." Rivian said no injuries were reported. Images that circulated on social media captured the interior aftermath, including what appeared to be a substantial portion of the roof that had given way.

In a Sunday evening message to staff, CEO RJ Scaringe said the affected section had been taken offline temporarily, with a return to normal activity anticipated before the end of the current week. The rest of the Normal facility, including its vehicle assembly operations, remained on schedule throughout the disruption.

"While Building 2 has sustained damage and is closed for the time being as we complete our assessments, I am incredibly relieved to share that there were no injuries at our plant," Scaringe wrote.

Output of R1 trucks and the company's electric commercial vans continued without interruption, with the closure confined solely to the area designated for R2 parts and logistics. Rivian has yet to address whether the incident could push back the R2's debut, still anticipated sometime in the near term.

The incident comes at a critical moment for Rivian. Projections from the automaker call for 20,000 to 25,000 R2 deliveries before year's end, a volume that analysts have noted would place the launch among the quickest ramp-ups ever recorded for a new electric vehicle in the American market. Quarterly losses remain a fixture of Rivian's financial results, and the company has framed broad R2 adoption as the mechanism through which it expects to eventually achieve profitability.

At the Normal facility, R2 manufacturing is being layered in alongside the R1 lineup already in production there. A dedicated second plant is under development outside Atlanta that will take on R2 volume and serve as the home for the R3 hatchback Rivian has in the pipeline. Site preparation on the Georgia campus began in late 2025, with structural work slated to get underway this year and vehicles rolling off the line targeted for 2028.

Broader context from the NWS placed the storm within a wave of severe weather that swept through the upper Midwest on Friday.