Ordering a Rivian? Use code JOSE1715716 to earn up to 500 points + 3 months of free RAN charging.
Rivian Confirms EF-1 Tornado Hit Normal Plant, Operations Resuming This Week
Rivian has now put out an official statement on Friday night’s storm damage at the Normal factory, and it turns out a tornado did in fact touch down at the site.
“On Friday evening, our Normal Plant experienced severe weather including an EF-1 tornado that touched down on the R2 plant. While Building 2 has sustained damage and is closed for the time being as we complete our assessments, we are incredibly relieved to share that there were no injuries at our plant. We anticipate resuming operations in Building 2 this week. Operations at other facilities continue as planned.”
No injuries is the big one. The tornado hit the R2 plant specifically, which lines up with the photos from inside Building 2, and Rivian expects to have it running again this week. R1 production elsewhere on the campus isn’t affected.
We covered the early photos and damage reports in our post earlier today before Rivian said anything publicly. At the time, local storm reports in Normal pointed to severe straight-line winds, so I held off on calling it a tornado. Now confirmed.
A week of downtime in the R2 building isn’t nothing, but it’s not launch-derailing either. What we still don’t know is what actually got damaged inside, whether any R2 tooling took a hit, or what “resuming operations” looks like in practice. That’s the next thing to watch.
I thought mother nature liked EVs.
The area affected is for receiving. Should not affect production much if at all. Have to do some rearranging. Start repairs on damaged area.
They got real lucky. The tornado was not an E2 or E3. And it was not on the ground. If it was a big one on the ground the whole building could have been destroyed setting them back at least six months to a year. Just my opinion
Mother nature can’t stop R2 🙂
“At the time, local storm reports in Normal pointed to severe straight-line winds, so I held off on calling it a tornado. Now confirmed.”
Thank you for this, I appreciate not calling it a tornado until it’s confirmed, as straight line winds can cause similar damage as an EF1 tornado. And I appreciate you updating it once it was confirmed. After reading this article, I went to NOAA to check out the storm reports. Very crazy that the starting point of this tornado was the Rivian property!
https://www.weather.gov/lot/2026_04_17_severeweather
I always want to report the most accurate information I have at the time, unlike others I don’t want to jump the shark.
Team RJ:
I’m patiently waiting for my R2.
For this weather-related hiccups, invest in the weather cones for your roofs.⏫⏫⏫⏫🚩👍🏽
https://greenlanddevelopmentgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/what_hurricane_proof_home_fl.jpg