A year ago, our local newspaper, The Pantagraph, selected you as its 2021 “Newsmaker of the year.”  The first Rivian pickup for customer delivery had just rolled off the line, and your stock went public, almost immediately making your company one of the most valuable automakers in the world. Rivian brought life to a manufacturing plant abandoned by Mitsubishi, created thousands of new jobs with the promise of thousands more, and was heralded by one of our economic development leaders as “the gift that keeps giving.” 

You brought a level of excitement to this area usually reserved for the grand opening of a new chain restaurant, a bumper corn crop, or an Illinois State University football win over Eastern Illinois. The arrival of Rivian has rocked our economic world with a massive shot in the arm for our real estate, rentals, retail shops, restaurants, bars, and hotels. 

But what a difference a year makes.

I’ve never been much for investing in individual companies, except for a brief period during the nineties dot.com build-up when I opened an online trading account and turned thousands of dollars into a pocketful of loose change. Almost overnight, I exchanged a planned Disney vacation for a family trip to a local amusement park. But I almost bought into your IPO. If I had, this year’s vacation might have been a day trip to the state fair in Springfield.

In a little over twelve months, Rivian stock is down 84% from its peak, you ticked off customers already waiting too long for the delivery of their trucks by instituting an on-again/off-again price increase, your production targets jerked back and forth like the mechanical duck at a carnival shooting game, and you had to recall every single vehicle you ever made. This week you broke off an engagement with Mercedes Benz that lasted just a little longer than a high school crush. 

Granted, the world’s economy is in flux, the capital markets are tight, and new companies are expected to spend at a high rate to get themselves off the ground. But the billions of dollars pouring out of Rivian’s corporate coffers gives the appearance that you’re burning through cash like a drunk frat boy buying tequila shots on spring break. Only this hangover will be felt by our local economy and the thousands of people who left their jobs to join your company. 

You're a bright man, and I'm sure you have a plan. But your CFO's explanation that the Mercedes break up "reflects our process of continually evaluating our major capital projects, while taking into consideration our current and anticipated economic conditions" sounds less like words of encouragement than it does corporate speak, masking boardroom mayhem. 

In 2019, the town renamed the road to your plant from Mitsubishi Roadway to Rivian Roadway. Reflecting a move from a dark past to a brighter future. I hope Rivian’s future is as bright as the one you promised. If not, Rivian Roadway could become this town’s highway to hell.