Rivian commits 1% employee reduction to cope with sales uncertainty

Earlier this week, Rivian made a new change in its workforce by downsizing employees to maintain its spending for future operations. The electric vehicle (EV) maker has confirmed that it may slash as much as 1 percent of employees by this month.

This new round of job cuts follows a 10 percent layoff earlier this year. This reduction affected the company’s salaried employees and the number of hourly non-manufacturing workers.

These layoffs reflect the company’s macroeconomic challenges and hostile conditions in the electric vehicles market.

Rivian R3 (Image Credit: Rivian)

The company reported 13,980 vehicle production in its Q1 2024 business results and delivered 13,588 vehicles. It aims to deliver 57,000 total vehicles by the end of this year. However, financial figures will be shared on May 7 during an audio webcast.

Last month, Rivian introduced a mid-sized R2 electric SUV alongside the R3 crossover. It also paused the construction of its $5 billion Georgia manufacturing plant to save more than $2.25 billion to produce its future vehicles.

“Beyond significantly reducing the amount of capital needed to bring R2 to market the company believes this approach considerably reduces risk to the launch and associated ramp;” wrote the company in an R2 press release.

EV leader, Tesla also announced a 10 percent layoff from its global workforce. Ford also reintroduced its F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck with reduced price tags.