Rivian to lay off 10% of salaried staff

Rivian announced that it’s cutting 10% of its salaried workforce as it contends with “economic and geopolitical pressures.” 

The electric automaker said that economic pressures, most notably the historically high interest rates, will result in flat vehicle output for the year. 

The company expects to produce the same number, about 57,000 vehicles, in 2024 as it did the year before, the company said Wednesday in a regulatory filing.   

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Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe said the company made “great progress” in 2023 even with economic headwinds and is still optimistic about the year ahead.

“We firmly believe in the full electrification of the automotive industry, but recognize in the short-term, the challenging macro-economic conditions,” Scaringe said. 

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However, to ensure long-term growth, the California-based company is “aggressively focused on driving cost efficiency throughout the business, achieving positive margins and building our go-to-market function.” 

Aside from the cuts, the company said it will continue its company-wide cost transformation program which already “has resulted in meaningful reductions in total unit costs for both the R1 and EDV models through engineering design changes, commercial cost downs, and manufacturing efficiencies.”

Rivian is the latest company to announce layoffs.

In January, companies planned 82,307 job cuts, a 136% increase from the previous month, according to a report published by Challenger, Gray & Christmas. It was also the second-highest layoff total for the month of January since 2009.

Layoffs have proliferated across the media and tech industries as well as Wall Street.