Rivian is shedding 10% of its salaried workforce in a bid to chop prices in an more and more powerful marketplace for electrical autos, placing much more stress on its future, extra reasonably priced EV referred to as the R2. A restricted variety of non-manufacturing hourly staff can even be minimize, founder and CEO RJ Scaringe mentioned in a companywide electronic mail.
That is the third spherical of layoffs for the EV firm since July 2022 when Rivian minimize 6% of its workforce. The corporate minimize one other 6% of jobs in February 2023.
The corporate greater than doubled the variety of EVs it constructed and shipped in 2023 in comparison with 2022. However Rivian nonetheless misplaced greater than $5.4 billion for the yr, and introduced Wednesday that it solely expects to construct the identical quantity — 57,000 — electrical autos throughout all of 2024.
Consequently, Rivian says it expects to lose round $2.7 billion in 2024, and has determined to “proceed its company-wide price transformation program.” That features modifications to the design and engineering of its autos, making manufacturing extra environment friendly, and shedding extra staff.
The corporate’s manufacturing and revenue loss steerage mixed with the layoffs pushed Rivian shares down greater than 15% in after-hours buying and selling.
“Our enterprise is dealing with a difficult macroeconomic setting — together with traditionally excessive rates of interest and geopolitical uncertainty — and we have to make purposeful modifications now to make sure our promising future,” founder and CEO RJ Scaringe mentioned in an electronic mail to the corporate. “We should strategically prioritize our progress areas of the enterprise, together with the launch of Peregrine and R2 in addition to investing in our go-to-market capabilities.”
This story is growing. Examine again for updates.
