Rivian, a manufacturer of electric vehicles, will lay off 800 workers, or around 6 per cent of its 14,000 workforce, a company representative, Amy Mast, said in an email. According to her, the decision was made in part to hasten the production of the company’s upcoming electric trucks and SUVs.
This comes after a report from earlier in the month that claimed the company’s management was attempting to eliminate non-manufacturing roles that were added as it ramped up.
In response to rumours that Rivian was considering layoffs, CEO RJ Scaringe sent an email to staff outlining recent adjustments the company has been making to reduce expenses.
We’ve implemented changes across Rivian, including prioritizing certain programs (and stopping some), halting certain non-manufacturing hiring and adopting major cost-down efforts to reduce material spending and operating expenses. We also began the process of aligning the organization as a whole to ensure we are as focused, nimble and efficient as possible to achieve our priorities and objectives.
This information arrives just when Rivian needs it most. Just recently has the corporation begun to increase manufacturing of its pickup trucks, SUVs, and delivery vans for Amazon. The company stated in its most recent quarterly report that it had built about 2,553 vehicles, delivered 1,227 of them, and continued to expect to make 25,000 by the end of the year. (The company’s Q2 earnings report, which is due on August 11th, is anticipated to include revised production data.) Rivian, according to Bloomberg, has enormous financial reserves, but the business also lost a staggering $1.59 billion in the most recent quarter.
There are more companies undergoing layoffs besides Rivian.
In recent months, several tech companies have laid off significant portions of their workforces. Ford is thinking about firing 8,000 employees, and sister electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla has declared plans to reduce its employment by 10%.
However, considering that Tesla sells hundreds of thousands of vehicles per quarter, that is not particularly exceptional. Tesla has a history of experiencing delays, but it has also shown that it is capable of producing cars in large numbers. That capability is still up for debate for Rivian, which, according to its most recent statistics, has approximately 200,000 preorders, half of which are from Amazon.
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