ATLANTA (AP) -- It seems like a terrible time to build an electric vehicle plant in the United States, but Rivian Automotive leaders say they're confident as the company starts long-delayed work on a $5 billion facility in Georgia.

The money-losing California-based company breaks ground Tuesday east of Atlanta despite President Donald Trump's successful push to roll back electric vehicle tax credits. Starting Sept. 30, buyers will no longer qualify for savings of up to $7,500 per car.

Rivian Chief Policy Officer Alan Hoffman said the company believes it can sell electric vehicles not for environmental or tax incentive reasons, but because they're superior.

"We did not build this company based upon federal tax incentives," Hoffman said. "And we're going to prove that we're going to be successful in the future."

The Georgia plant, first announced in 2021, is Rivian's key to reaching profitability. Now the company makes the high-end R1T pickup truck and the R1S sport utility vehicle in Normal, Illinois, as well as delivery vans for Amazon and others. Its truck prices start at $71,000.

The Illinois plant will begin making smaller R2 SUVs next year, with prices starting at $45,000. An expanded Illinois plant will be able to assemble 215,000 vehicles yearly. But if the R2 is a hit, and if Rivian successfully produces an even smaller R3, it will need more capacity. The company has said the Georgia operation will be able to make 200,000 vehicles yearly starting in 2028. It plans another 200,000 in capacity in phase two, volume that would spread fixed costs over many more vehicles.

The projections would be a big leap from the 40,000 to 46,000 vehicles Rivian expects to deliver this year, down from 52,000 last year. The company says it's limiting production now in part to launch 2026 models.

"For Rivian, it's do-or-die time," said Alex Oyler, North American director of auto research firm SBD Automotive. "We saw with Tesla that the key to profitability is scale, and you can't scale if your cheapest vehicle is $70,000. So they need that plant online to achieve a level of scale of R2 and ultimately R3."

Sales growth is slowing for electric vehicles in the United States, rising only 1.5% in 2025's first half, according to Cox Automotive.

Tesla accounted for almost 45% of U.S. electric vehicle sales in that period, according to Cox. But the giant is losing market share as others gain: General Motors' slice of American EV sales has climbed to 13%. By comparison, Rivian had a 3% share in the first half of the year, behind Tesla and six traditional automakers.

But excluding Tesla, Rivian is the most successful of the startup automakers.

The company initially tapped a largely unfilled niche: demand for electric pickups and SUVs. But the competition now includes Ford's F-150 Lightning and the electric Chevrolet Silverado.

After an initial public offering in 2021, Rivian shares have fallen by more than 80%, while automaker shares overall have outpaced the broader stock market. Rivian lost $1.66 billion in 2025's first half.

At the same time, some automakers' ardor for electric vehicles is cooling. Stellantis last week canceled Ram's electric truck program. Ford has delayed production at a new Tennessee plant. And General Motors abandoned plans to build electric vehicles at a suburban Detroit plant.

"With all the competition out there in this market and the slowing growth of EVs, it does not play in Rivian's favor," said Sam Fiorani, a vice president at AutoForecast Solutions. "However, there still is an EV market out there."

Georgia has pledged $1.5 billion of incentives to Rivian in exchange for 7,500 company jobs paying at least $56,000 a year on average. Rivian can't benefit from most incentives unless it meets employment goals, but the state is already spending $175 million to buy and grade land and improve roads.

Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who has said he wants to make Georgia "the electric mobility capital of America," acknowledges Rivian faces bumps, but says he remains confident the company can fulfill its promises.

While Tesla has thousands of employees in California and Texas, some new electric vehicle plants have sputtered. Two separate EV makers that hoped to assemble vehicles in a former GM plant in Lordstown, Ohio, went bankrupt. Georgia's Hyundai complex near Savannah is faring better, with production underway. However, a battery plant there has been delayed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arresting 475 people on site, including more than 300 South Koreans.

Rivian was supposed to be making trucks by now at the 2,000-acre (800-hectare) site near Social Circle, about 45 miles (70 kilometers) east of Atlanta. As the company burned through cash in 2024, it paused construction. But German automaker Volkswagen agreed to invest $5.8 billion in Rivian in exchange for software and electrical technology. And then-President Joe Biden's administration in November agreed to loan Rivian $6.6 billion to build the Georgia plant.

Despite the Trump administration's hostility toward EVs, Hoffman said Rivian hopes the U.S. Department of Energy will distribute the loan money, arguing it will boost domestic manufacturing.

Rivian also faces opposition from some residents who say the plant is an inappropriate neighbor to farms and will pollute the groundwater.

"I planned on dying and retiring on the front porch and the biggest project in Georgia has to go next door to me, of all places in the country?" asked Eddie Clay, who lives less than a mile away. He says his well water turned mud-choked after excavation at the Rivian site.

There are other challenges for Rivian, including tariffs costing $2,000 per vehicle, the Trump administration ending a tax-credit program that will cost the company $140 million in revenue this year, and long-term threats from low-priced, cutting-edge Chinese EVs. But Hoffman says Rivian is "in this for the long haul."

"We think that we can compete with anyone out there and that once given the opportunity, we're going to excel," he said.

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St. John reported from Detroit.