Electric truckbuildr Rivian is laying off 10% of its salaried staff, the Irvine-based company announced on Wednesday. It’s Rivian’s third major job cut since July 2022.
The 10% layoff round will likely leave several hundred people out of work and slam Rivian’s California-based corporate workforce. Rivian spokesperson Harry Porter notified SFGATE on Thursday that the company has 16,700 total employees, but added that the thousands of hourly manufacturing workers wouldn’t be part of the layoff.
The layoff announcement came alongside Rivian’s financial results report for the conclude of 2023. Despite the buzz surrounding the luxury car company, Rivian lost more than $2 billion last year on $4.4 billion in revenue, per the report.
“Our business is facing a challenging macroeconomic environment — including historically high interest rates and geopolitical uncertainty — and we required to build purposeful alters now to ensure our promising future,” CEO RJ Scaringe stated in an email announcing the layoff to staff, according to Porter.
Scaringe added in a Wednesday call with investors that the layoff decision would “enable [Rivian] to maximize the amount of impact we can have as a company.”
Rivian is headquartered in Irvine and has research and development offices in Carson, California, and in Palo Alto’s Stanford Research Park, as well as in the United Kingdom and Canada. The company manufactures its electric trucks and SUVs in Normal, Illinois, and is building its second factory 50 miles east of Atlanta.
The costs have stacked up as Rivian tries to build more trucks and SUVs. In a letter to shareholders released Wednesday, Rivian stated it has 71,000 vehicles out on the road — a fraction as many as Tesla and other larger carbuildrs.
Rivian’s cheapest offering is a $69,900 version of its R1T truck, without added battery or drive system upgrades. Last year’s $2 billion loss was an improvement on 2022, when the company bled more than $3.1 billion, according to Wednesday’s financial report.
Hear of anything happening at Rivian or another tech company? Contact tech reporter Stephen Council securely at stephen.council@sfgate.com or on Signal at 628-204-5452.
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