Latest wave of redundancies is the the EV-maker’s response to sluggish demand for electric cars in North America
April 18, 2024 at 17:25
- Rivian is laying off 1 percent of its workforce.
- The firm already cut its headcount by 10 percent in February.
- Around 150 people are expected to leave.
The slowdown in demand for EVs has already claimed Fisker’s scalp, and this week Rivian took steps to make sure it’s not next to fall. The U.S.-based startup has announced it will cut its workforce by 1 percent only a couple of months after letting more than 1,000 workers go.
Rivian waved goodbye to 10 percent of its employees in February as the effects of a sluggish EV market started to bite, having already cut 6 percent in the previous February, and a further 6 percent in July 2022, Business Insider reported. It also let 20 people from its battery department go last December.
Related: Rivian Hits Production Goals For Q1 As It Prepares For A Slow Down
Based on the circa-16,800 employees Rivian said it had at the tail end of 2023, an estimated 150 workers are likely to be looking for new jobs as part of the latest decision.
“We continue to work to right-size the business and ensure alignment to our priorities,” the company said in a statement emailed to Bloomberg. “This was a difficult decision, but a necessary one to support our goal to be gross margin positive by the end of the year.”
Staff working on product and Rivian’s commercial EV business reportedly bore the brunt of February’s cuts, but the latest layoffs will mostly affect support and back-office workers. And Rivian isn’t the only EV firm that’s resorted to reducing its headcount to trim costs. Earlier this week Tesla announced that it would cut its workforce by 10 percent.
Rivian attracted significant attention last month when it revealed plans for three new smaller SUVs and crossovers, the R2, R3 and R3X, and earlier this month confirmed it had hit its sales targets for the first quarter of this year.
But the firm had previously missed its sales targets for the R1T and R1S in Q4, 2023, and was rumored to have lost $33,000 on every vehicle it did sell last year. The company’s stock is currently worth $8.83 at the time of publishing, but in December it was trading at $21.1, though even that figure is a far cry from the $128.6 it commanded in November 2021.
Rivian isn’t currently taking orders for its R1T truck and R1S SUV, having paused production at its Illinois site from April 5-30 to retool the production line. Updated versions of the R1 EVs are expected this year, with sources claiming that a new ‘Ascent’ trim grade will deliver over 1,000 hp (1,014 PS).
