- Fortunately, the fire didn’t spread beyond the factory’s parking lot.
- A Rivian spokesperson says the cause of the fire is still being investigated.
- The blaze comes just a few weeks after three Amazon delivery vehicles built by Rivian caught on fire.
Approximately 50 spanking new Rivian R1S and R1T models have been damaged in a fire that broke out at the parking lot of the firm’s factory in Normal, Illinois, over the weekend.
The blaze started on Saturday evening and the Normal Fire Department was called to the scene just before 9:45 p.m. A video shared on social media shows the severity of the inferno, with huge flames stretching into the sky and thick black smoke billowing out from the toasty Rivians.
Read: Rivian Is Cutting Costs But Still Loses Over $32,000 On Every EV It Builds
Fire crews were able to put out the inferno, but not before dozens of R1Ts and R1Ss were ruined. One image captured after the scene shows that Rivian has boxed in 57 vehicles that were damaged in the blaze and positioned them in the corner of its parking lot. The vast majority of the EVs visible have been destroyed and are nothing left but burnt-out carcasses. A small handful appear to have escaped with less significant damage.
Speaking with 25 News Now after the accident, Rivian spokesperson Kelli Felker said the cause of the fire is being investigated.
“We are investigating the cause of a fire that damaged a number of vehicles in a parking lot at our Normal plant late Saturday night,” she said. “The plant itself is unaffected. At this time, we are not aware of any injuries.”
Fortunately for Rivian, the fire did not spread to the production facility itself, nor did it impact any of the brand’s forthcoming models like the smaller R2 and R3.
This is not the only recent fire-related incident that Rivian has experienced. In July, three of the all-electric Amazon delivery fans built by the EV manufacturer caught fire at an Amazon fulfillment center in Houston, Texas. While an official cause for that fire hasn’t been released, Rivian asserted that one of the vans was plugged into a charger at the time but was not charging. It also said the “HV [high-voltage] battery was not the initiator of the incident.”
