Rivian says it is laying off 10 percent of its workforce as EV woes deepen

Rivian said it was laying off 10 percent of its workforce as concerns about slower electric vehicle sales continue to reverberate across the industry.

The company made the announcement as part of its fourth quarter earnings report, in which it said it likely wouldn’t make any more vehicles this year than it did in 2023. Rivian’s stock price fell on the news.

Rivian has gone through several rounds of layoffs in its short history. The company let go 6 percent of its workforce both in July 2022 and May 2023. This current round of layoffs is expected to affect over a thousand workers at the Irvine, California-based company, which has a combined workforce of 16,700 salaried and hourly employees.

A spokesperson said the layoffs would mostly affect the company’s salaried employees, as well as a limited number of hourly non-manufacturing workers, but declined to provide an exact number.

“Our business is facing a challenging macroeconomic environment—including historically high interest rates and geopolitical uncertainty—and we need to make purposeful changes now to ensure our promising future,” Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe said in an email to employees. “We must strategically prioritize our growth areas of the business, including the launch of Peregrine and R2 as well as investing in our go-to-market capabilities. We’ve recently implemented several organizational and leadership changes, but we need to do more to achieve our strategic priorities.”

Rivian said it expects to produce 57,000 vehicles in 2024, roughly the same number it made in 2023. The company cited “[e]conomic and geopolitical uncertainties and pressures, most notably the impact of historically high interest rates” as its reasoning for the flat production outlook.

The company will unveil its second-generation R2 vehicle next month, which is expected to be a smaller, more affordable compact SUV.

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