Rivian plant is a hellish nightmare of safety violations: report
Workers describe horror scenes over at the Rivian factory in Normal, Illinois – from cracked skulls to amputated fingers to one person vomiting “Rivian blue”-colored bile after painting R1s without proper safety gear. According to a scathing new report in Bloomberg, the American-made EV maker has racked up more “serious” US safety violations than any other automaker since the start of 2023 – despite having only one plant.
The American EV upstart, which has hit some serious financial woes, now has a different set of problems on its hands. Rivian has received initial citations for 16 “serious” violations from the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in the past 21 months, the report cited. By comparison, Toyota, Honda, Volvo, Nissan, GM, and Fordach received no more than 10, while Volkswagen and Subaru had none. Tesla and Chrysler maker Stellantis, with considerably larger workforces than Rivian, also received fewer initial serious citations, with Telsa receiving three “repeat” violations, which carry a heavier penalty, and Stellantis receiving two.
Bloomberg merges both government findings and interviews with current and past employees to paint a gory picture of dangerous safety violations, employees lacking in safety training and proper equipment, paying the price with back injuries requiring surgery or amputated fingers, and a lack of procedures put in place as the cash-strapped company aims to ramp up production of its luxury EVs and Amazon delivery vans. “Move fast and break things,” literally.
Updated: For its part, Rivian responded to Electrek with a statement: “The safety of everyone at Rivian is our top priority. We’re continually improving our processes and have not received any serious citations this year. It’s incredibly disappointing to see how Bloomberg has misrepresented the facts in this story. Since January 2023, Rivian has received two serious OSHA citations. Initial citations should not be confused as final citations, and to suggest otherwise is incredibly misleading.”
The company added that it has committees in place that regularly review its factory processes and make recommendations on how to improve them. It also has an open-door policy to its employees to bring their concerns to supervisors or report them anonymously. To be fair, Rivian says its self-reported rate of work-related injuries and illnesses this year has been better than the industry average for light-duty manufacturers in 2022, which was the last full year of data available.
OSHA, too, said that since it began inspections at Rivian in 2021, the company “has improved their safety and health team and are very cooperative with the OSHA process.” But this gets a bit murky as Bloomberg clarified OSHA’s motivations in quickly downgrading violations and working with companies, rather than dragging out litigations, to improve workplace safety sooner rather than later.
From Bloomberg:
Rivian says that as part of settlements with the agency, almost all of the violations OSHA initially labeled as serious were ultimately downgraded from that category or dismissed. “Initial citations should not be confused as final citations, and to suggest otherwise is incredibly misleading,” a Rivian spokesperson said.
Former OSHA leaders, however, say initial citations — which are issued after the agency has investigated a job site and considered the company’s perspective — reveal more about workplace hazards. OSHA agrees to downgrade citations because its priority is for companies to address hazards, whereas litigating a dispute for years could leave them unresolved, according to former OSHA head David Michaels.
“OSHA’s objective is to get the hazard abated,” said Michaels, who ran the agency from 2009 to 2017 and is now a George Washington University public health professor. “And so OSHA is often willing to reduce both the penalties and the number of citations in order to get that settlement.”
Worker interviews fill in the rest, with workers saying they are being put in harm’s way as the company ramps up “production of delivery vans for Amazon.com Inc. and $100,000 luxury SUVs popular with celebrities including Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, and looks to access hundreds of millions of dollars of state subsidies.” It’s not a great look.
According to the report, 20-year-old Addison Zwanzig started working at Rivian in July 2023 for $23 an hour plus benefits to spray vehicles in the paint room for eight hours a day, six days a week. Within weeks, she complained of dizziness, alongside other symptoms, such as nausea and vomiting, leading to weight loss. After requesting that her supervisor provide her with a respirator, which she saw other colleagues using, her request was declined. By September, she had seen doctors regarding what she described as blue-tinted vomit. Rivian then provided a respirator the following month and then for other workers who were not issued one as well. She filed a complaint with OSHA and is still seeking treatment from specialists, according to the report. Rivian declined to comment to Bloomberg, citing privacy requirements, but added that they “provide all necessary safety equipment, including respirators.” Her employment has since been terminated.
Bloomberg writes that the sheer complaints and serious injuries happening at the plant “are all red flags,” said Deborah Berkowitz, who reviewed the records and served as OSHA chief of staff under President Barack Obama. Rivian’s plant has for several years been the target of union efforts from the UAW, which aims to help worker bring complaints to OSHA, which is of course unfunded and doesn’t have the resources to look into most violations.
Rivian’s factory employs around 7,400 workers in Normal, a university town with about 50,000 residents. Rivian is one of the city’s largest employers, with multiple members of some families working at the plant. The company says it has already invested more than $2 billion in Normal and has manufactured more than 100,000 electric vehicles since opening in 2021.
Head to Bloomberg for the full report.
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A judge has officially approved a settlement in a case brought by Tesla shareholders against board members who will now have to return stock, cash, and give up on stock options worth a total of nearly $1 billion.
Let me start this article with a quote from Tesla CEO Elon Musk:
Tesla will never settle a case where we’re in the right, and never contest a case where we’re in the wrong.
Today, Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick approved a settlement agreement between Tesla and all its board members from 2017 to 2020 and the Police and Fire Retirement System of the City of Detroit on behalf of Tesla shareholders over what the shareholders believed to be excessive compensation.
The agreement was first reported in July 2023, but it is only now being officially approved and we learn a few more details.
Shareholders believed that members of Tesla’s board were compensating themselves excessively with hundreds of millions of dollars between 2017 and 2020 when the average compensation of a board member of a S&P500 company is just north of $300,000.
Under the settlement, the board members agree to return to Tesla $277 million in cash, $459 million in stock options and to forgo $184 million worth of stock options awarded for 2021-2023.
That adds up to nearly $1 billion.
The board members include Kimbal Musk, Elon’s brother, Brad Buss, Ira Ehrenpreis, Antonio Gracias, Stephen Jurvetson, all close friends of Elon Musk and people who have financial dealings with Musk outside of Tesla, Linda Johnson Rice, Kathleen Wilson-Thompson, Hiromichi Mizuno and Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle Corp and also a close friend of Musk.
As part of the settlement, Tesla or the board does not admit to any wrongdoing.
Musk didn’t take compensation as part of the board, but he is embroiled in a similar case over his own $55 billion CEO compensation package, which was rescinded by the same judge after she found that it wasn’t negotiated or presented to shareholders in good faith.
The board members who received this “excessive compensation” also happened to be the one who “negotiated” Musk’s CEO compensation package.
The case is heading to the Delaware Supreme Court, as reported earlier today.
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Environment
Nissan’s Ariya electric SUV takes on the extreme weather in its new test chamber [Video]
![Nissan's Ariya electric SUV takes on the extreme weather in its new test chamber [Video]](https://i0.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/07/Nissan-first-Tesla-NACS-Japan.jpeg?resize=1200,628&quality=82&strip=all&ssl=1)
Despite how cold it may feel outside, Nissan’s electric SUV has likely been through colder. Nissan is proving its Ariya SUV can handle the extreme weather at its unique new test chamber at its tech center near Detroit. With temperatures ranging from -40 to 176 °F, the Ariya is being pushed to see what it’s made of.
Nissan launched the Ariya, its first electric SUV, in the US in late 2022. Over 13,400 Ariya models were sold in the US in its first sales year, with another nearly 20,000 handed over in 2024.
A few weeks ago, Nissan introduced the 2025 Ariya, starting at just $39,770. It has two battery options, 66 or 91 kWh, good for 216 and 289 miles range. That’s for the FWD models.
You can opt for Nissan’s e-4ORCE AWD dual-motor system for “thrilling acceleration” with up to 389 hp and 442 lb-ft of torque. However, with the added power, you sacrifice some range. The AWD Ariya gets up to 272 miles range.
With many parts of the country seeing frigid temperatures, Nissan says its “Ariya is very well equipped” to combat freezing weather.
The electric SUV was already the first vehicle (EV or gas-powered) to drive from the North to the South Pole in 2023. Now, it’s being put through the paces at Nissan’s tech center outside of Detroit.
It’s currently around 23 °F in Detroit, with a low of 11 °F, but Nissan says it’s even colder in its unique new test chamber. The chamber is located at the Nissan Technical Center North America campus, just outside Detroit.
Nissan Ariya handles cold weather tests in new chamber
“Our chambers are capable of temperatures ranging from -40 degrees Fahrenheit to 176 degrees Fahrenheit,” Jeff Tessmer, senior manager of Zero Emission Vehicles at Nissan’s tech center, explained.
Nissan tests the Ariya in a test chamber with “far more extreme” temperatures than the typical driver will see. Tessmer said, “We want to test the worst-case scenario so that our customers will still get the same performance in a wide variety of weather conditions.”
One of the biggest goals is to prove the electric SUV’s battery can maintain charge levels even in extreme weather.
Nissan puts it through “cold soak” tests to ensure performance. During a 24-hour cold soak, the Ariya was parked in -4 °F weather with a 17% battery charge. It also wasn’t plugged in or using its battery heater. After the team returned the next day, the electric SUV still had a 17% charge and started up immediately.
The Ariya is equipped with a battery heater that drivers can turn on ahead of time to ensure optimal performance. On hot days, it includes a liquid-cooled system to regulate battery temperatures.
Drivers can also use the MYNISSAN app to pre-warm the cabin, check the interior temperature, and schedule charging times. Ansu Jammeh, an engineer on Nissan’s Zero Emissions Engineering team, said the best time to use the heating feature is “when the vehicle is plugged in so that it uses power from the grid instead of the vehicle.”
| 2025 Nissan Ariya trim | Battery (kWh) |
Starting Prices* (MSRP) | Range (miles) |
| Engage FWD | 66 | $39,770 | 216 |
| Engage e-4ORCE | 66 | $43,770 | 205 |
| Evolve + FWD | 91 | $44,370 | 289 |
| Engage + e-4ORCE | 91 | $45,370 | 272 |
| Evolve + e-4ORCE | 91 | $48,370 | 272 |
| Platinum + e-4ORCE | 91 | $54,370 | 267 |
Nissan added a new wireless charging pad across all 2025 Ariya models. The inside features Nissan’s Advanced Drive-Assist setup with dual 12.3″ infotainment and driver display screens formed in a “wave-like” shape.
Other standard features of the 2025 model include wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support, a Head-up display, and a Virtual Personal Assistant. It also includes Nissan’s ProPilot Assist for assisted driving.
Are you ready to check out Nissan’s electric SUV for yourself? We can help you get started. You can use our link to find Nissan Ariya models at the best price in your area today.
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Florida’s Rice Creek Solar Energy Center is now online, delivering nearly 75 megawatts (MW) of clean electricity to 12 cities across the state. The solar farm is part of the Florida Municipal Solar Project, one of the largest municipal solar initiatives in the US.
Located in Putnam County, near Palatka, the Rice Creek site is covered with 213,000 solar panels that generate enough power for around 14,000 homes. This marks the third solar site in the Florida Municipal Solar Project, with more on the way.
Twelve utilities are tapping into the clean energy from Rice Creek, including Beaches Energy Services (Jacksonville Beach), Fort Pierce Utilities Authority, Homestead, Keys Energy Services in Key West, Kissimmee Utility Authority, Lake Worth Beach, Mount Dora, New Smyrna Beach Utilities, Newberry, Ocala, Town of Havana, and Winter Park. This is the first solar power project for Havana, New Smyrna Beach, and Newberry.
Jacob Williams, the general manager of the Florida Municipal Power Agency, explained, “By working together, our members and their communities benefit from additional solar-powered energy that’s both cost-effective and carbon-free.”
The FMPA, based in Orlando, coordinates the project, while the 12 municipal utilities – who are also FMPA’s member-owners – purchase the power. Miami-based Origis Energy is the builder, owner, and operator of Rice Creek. According to Origis Energy’s Josh Teigiser, “We are honored to support this FMPA work. Long-term agreements for solar generation, including for Rice Creek Solar, provide a stable rate base contributing to lower and more predictable customers’ bills.”
Construction is already underway on a fourth Florida solar farm, Whistling Duck Solar, in Levy County. The Florida Municipal Solar Project is expected to grow to seven sites in the next few years and will generate a total of around 525 MW of clean energy.
Read more: Ohio’s largest solar farm just came online
To limit power outages and make your home more resilient, consider going solar with a battery storage system. In order to find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. They have hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and you share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisers to help you every step of the way. Get started here. –trusted affiliate link*
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