To house the body shop and general assembly operations for R2, we are building a new 1.1 million square-foot building on the east side of our manufacturing campus, as well as several other new additions for paint, battery and material flow.

Despite the Illinois winter, construction has progressed well. Shortly, we expect the roof work to be complete and in some areas the interior work has already begun.

Where are we in the facilities construction phase for R2 in Normal?

Tony: All of the new buildings are now "going vertical"—that is, walls, structural steel bays, roof decking and roofing material are well underway. For example, today the new Body, General Assembly and End of Line building is complete for walls, 70% complete on structural steel and 60% complete for roof decking. We are running slightly ahead on this building. Our Parts Pre-Treat and E-Coat Dip (PTED) building is almost completely weather-tight and our integrator will start landing equipment next month.

How close are we to the start of production?

Tony: Construction is on track and we’re all looking forward to handing the new buildings over to operations as soon as we can. We are on track to bring R2 to market in 2026, as planned, and we couldn’t be more excited.

What are we doing to speed the build along?

Tony: Prefabrication was the key to accelerated schedule and delivery of the buildings. We have made every effort to prefabricate as much as possible to reduce the number of field connections that are required to bring the buildings and their systems up and operational.

How will the R2 expansion fit into the overall production footprint in Normal?

Tony: The R2 expansion will take advantage of space that was available on the south side of the plant and we are also utilizing land on the east side to construct the new 1.1 million square-foot Body, General Assembly and End of Line building. This required us to decommission the old test track and rebuild a new high-speed test track, which should be coming on line this spring.

Are there any efficiency gains we are working towards with the R2 site plan?

Tony: One of the key efficiency gains that we have created is removing all parts painting from the main paint shop and moving it to the new Parts PTED facility. This allows main paint to only be required to paint top-hats (vehicle bodies). The conveyance we are constructing between Body-to-Paint and Paint-to-General Assembly, combined with their respective Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (ASRS), gives us efficient buffers between each of the shops so we can build to the necessary high volume.

What’s the thing you like most about these kinds of projects?

Tony: Speed and complexity require a high level of collaboration. These are the truly fun programs to work on in my line of work. So many decisions are made each day to drive the program forward.

What makes the construction phase so important for the success of a vehicle program?

Tony: The faster we can get the buildings up and the utilities in place, the sooner our manufacturing engineering colleagues can begin to set and connect equipment with their integrators. All of this will bring the R2 into our customers hands more quickly.