NORMAL — Gov. JB Pritzker is pledging support to Illinois electric automakers amid threats that financial aid promised by President Joe Biden’s administration could be cut off upon President-elect Donald Trump’s return to power. 

The second-term Chicago Democrat made the remarks during an unrelated press conference Tuesday in Normal, where Rivian employs more than 8,000 workers to manufacture all of its electric pickup trucks, SUVs and commercial delivery vans. 

"I feel like Rivian is very much on its feet and doing well," said Pritzker, who visited the Normal plant in May to announce $827 million in tax incentives to support the company’s expansion. "And I don’t want the federal government to interfere with the success of any business in Illinois."

Rivian is in line to receive a $6.6 billion federal loan to build a long-planned factory in Georgia, but one of the president’s top advisers has suggested that the that the incoming administration may rescind it.

Also on the line in Illinois is the status of a $334 million federal grant automaker Stellantis is set to receive for retrofitting its idled Belvidere plant for electric vehicle manufacturing.

The company had agreed to reopen the facility and build an adjacent battery factory as part of a deal that ended the 2023 United Auto Workers strike. It had closed earlier that year after decades producing Chryslers, Dodges and Jeeps. Though announced last June, the grant agreement has yet to be finalized. 

"Look, we’re fighting like heck and we’ve, I think, done a lot here to solidify the Stellantis grant that would come and the loan to Rivian," Pritzker said. "And we talked to Rivian to make sure we’re doing everything we can to make sure that that’s secured for the future."

Top Trump allies Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, as part of their Department of Government Efficiency cost-cutting commission, have promised to scrutinize and potentially claw back spending in the EV sector. 

Ramaswamy said in November that the Rivian the federal loan agreement specifically came across as “a political shot” at Musk, who owns rival EV maker Tesla. He later told CNN that the loan was “high on the list of items” he would seek to rescind. 

Pritzker on Tuesday suggested that such a move would help Musk, who received a similar $465 million loan from the federal government in 2010. 

"It makes you wonder… if Vivek Ramaswamy, whose partner is Elon Musk, who is in a rival electric vehicle company, if there isn’t some self-dealing going on in the advocating for taking away something that is helping to build the industry, that would help other car companies," Pritzker said.

Some Trump advisers, including Musk, have advocated for ending other support for electric vehicles and charging stations, including a $7,500 federal tax credit for EV buyers included in Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. 

Pritzker, meanwhile, has made attracting businesses in the nascent electric vehicle industry a cornerstone of his economic development agenda, signing legislation in 2021 that creates a tax incentive program for EV producers and suppliers. 

Seventeen incentive packages worth up to $1.1 billion have been inked since, which could result in the creation of 5,000 new jobs and the retention of 8,000 existing ones. 

"I would find it hard to believe that they really want to put people out of work," Pritzker said of Musk and Ramaswamy, adding that it was "a fine threat" and that he hoped it was not "self-dealing."

Rivian announced last week that it had produced 49,476 vehicles and delivered 51,579 in 2024, in line with targets announced earlier this year. The company also said that a previously disclosed part shortage "is no longer a constraint" on its production. 

Trump takes office on Jan. 20.