Several electric vehicles (EVs) caught fire at a Rivian manufacturing facility in Normal, Illinois. According to Mike Smith for 25News Now, the fire began around 9:45 p.m. on Saturday, August 24. The Normal Fire Department (NFD) battled the fire, and the flames were extinguished by midnight.
Reuters is reporting that the fire began in the parking lot on the north side of the four-million-square-foot factory, but the assembly plant was unaffected.
Matt Swaney, a representative for the Normal Fire Department, told The Verge, “It is a very intricate and complex investigation so we do not have a timeline of when and if any origin or cause may be determined at this time. The assembly plant itself is unaffected by the incident. There were no injuries to firefighters or Rivian personnel.”
A Rivian spokesperson told InsideEVs, "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. The plant itself is unaffected. There were no injuries."
While there has been no official confirmation on the number of vehicles damaged in the blaze, Joe Kucinski for Road and Track is reporting that “aerial photos and video posted to a Rivian Facebook group show that about 50 to 60 vehicles were torched and appear to be a total loss. The damaged vehicles were cordoned off by box cars and barriers in the corner of the parking lot.”
This is not the first time that Rivian vehicles have been involved in a fire. According to Autobody News, three Rivian Amazon Electric Delivery Vans (EDVs) recently caught fire at an Amazon fulfillment center in Houston, Texas. The company insists that the Houston fire was not related to the vehicles' high-voltage batteries.