Report: Rivian To Lay Off More Than 600 Workers
Small electric-vehicle maker Rivian plans to lay off about 600 workers, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Six-hundred worker is about four percent of Rivian's workforce.
The move follows regulatory changes that may give consumers fewer reasons to buy an EV. Losing the $7,500 federal tax credit will likely reduce sales.
Rivian is also impacted by policies that have tanked the sales of compliance credits. That could cause Rivian have $100 million in revenue held up.
The electric-truck/SUV maker grew sales by 32 percent to 13,201 in the third quarter of this year. The company has shifted its sales forecast down to 41,500 units from 46,000.
Rivian had another round of layoffs last month, letting 1.5 percent of its workforce go as it cuts costs ahead of the launch of the lower-price R2 SUV. The R2 will retail for about $45K, and Rivian says it has enough money to launch it, despite losing $1.1 billion in Q2.
The company expects the R2 to have higher demand than the company's R1 truck and SUV, because those vehicles are both over $70K to start.
[Image: Rivian]
Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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I own the stock and really shouldn't comment. I also have an R2 reservation (which I probably won't use).
$1.1 billion loss in Q2... I wonder how much cash on hand they have... oh wait I wasn't going to comment. I'm certainly no investigative journalist. Right? Right? 😂
Big surprise here, well not really. With current battery tech, EVs work best as cars. A truck or SUV with the aerodynamics of a brick and big tires not designed to roll is the last thing you should put a battery in. Too expensive, too heavy and without the capability of an ICE vehicle that you need. This was a really poor business plan from the start.