- Electric carmaker Rivian plans to chop 10% of its salaried workforce.
- Despite doubling its EV deliveries in 2023, Rivian reported a $5.4 billion revenue loss for the yr.
- Rivian’s 2024 manufacturing falls wanting analysts’ expectations.
Electric carmaker Rivian mentioned on Wednesday that it will likely be slicing 10% of its salaried workforce because it offers with slowing EV demand.
The firm made the announcement in its 2023 fourth quarter earnings name on Wednesday.
The This fall monetary report additionally revealed that regardless of making and delivering twice as many EVs in 2023 as in 2022, the corporate nonetheless noticed a $5.4 billion revenue loss for the yr.
And for 2024, Rivian expects to supply across the similar variety of autos — about 57,000 — because it did in 2023. That’s a lot decrease than the 80,000 autos that analysts forecasted the corporate can be producing in 2024, based on Bloomberg.
In an e-mail to Business Insider, Rivian didn’t specify precisely what number of salaried employees members can be minimize, however mentioned that it has 16,700 whole staff, together with each salaried and hourly employees.
This is the corporate’s third spherical of layoffs within the final yr and a half — it minimize 6% of its employees in February 2023 and one other 6% in July 2022, Business Insider beforehand reported.
“Rivian, like other automakers, is facing the music of economic uncertainty, consumers’ waning enchantment with EVs, and strict federal tax credit rules,” Insider Intelligence senior analyst Jacob Bourne mentioned.
“The luxury-end of the EV market is becoming saturated and so Rivian knows its best bet is to aim for greater affordability, Bourne added. “The query is whether or not its upcoming R2 SUV will hit the candy spot for EV customers this yr. While it seeks to spice up gross sales, layoffs and a decline in battery metallic costs might launch the stress valve.”
Here’s the full email that Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe sent out to staff on Wednesday, announcing that layoffs would be coming on Thursday.
Hi Team,
Team changes are the hardest decisions I have to make as CEO. I have some difficult news to share. Tomorrow, we’re reducing our salaried employees by approximately 10% along with a limited number of non-manufacturing hourly employees. I want to give you some additional context on how we came to this decision.
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. 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.
Tomorrow, February 22, employees who are impacted will receive a calendar invite between 7:30 and 8 a.m. PT for a 1:1 meeting with their manager later that same morning. We know the timing here is difficult – waiting between now and tomorrow to understand whether you’re impacted is far from ideal, but we want to ensure a considerate notification process that accommodates all time zones. We will be doing everything we can to support our impacted colleagues through the separation process, including severance, eligibility for Rivian-paid COBRA benefits coverage and access to job placement services. Also, anyone impacted tomorrow will still be eligible for our FY’23 bonus.
I acknowledge saying goodbye to associates and colleagues is not straightforward. I’m grateful for everybody’s contributions, and for many who depart us, I need to thanks deeply for all the things you’ve got carried out for Rivian, and for what you’ve got carried out to advance our mission.