Electric vehicle startup Rivian plans to slash its salaried workforce by 10%, the company announced on Wednesday when it reported fourth quarter and full-year earnings for 2023.
In an email, a company spokesperson confirmed Rivian would lay off 10% of its salaried employees along with some non-manufacturing hourly workers. However, Rivian will not lay off hourly manufacturing workers at its plant in Normal, Illinois. The company employs 16,700 people, including salaried and hourly workers.
The spokesperson said the company would not provide further details on the layoffs at this time.
The automaker also plans to produce 57,000 vehicles in 2024, which is about the same as last year. Rivian said economic and geopolitical uncertainty, including high interest rates, influenced the production estimates.
“We firmly believe in the full electrification of the automotive industry, but recognize in the short-term, the challenging macro-economic conditions,” Rivian Founder and CEO RJ Scaringe said in a press release Wednesday. “We are aggressively focused on driving cost efficiency throughout the business, achieving positive margins and building our go-to-market function to support our long-term growth.”
Rivian has revamped its management and retooled its operations ahead of the launch of its first mainstream EV, dubbed the R2, in a bid to become profitable — the automaker lost over $1.5 billion in Q4 and $5.4 billion for the full year. However, the workforce changes and modest production targets suggest that the company’s path to prosperity may be a tough road to hoe amid slower EV demand, increased competition and lower prices in major markets worldwide.
“We need to make purposeful changes now to ensure our promising future,” Scaringe said in a company-wide email, excerpts of which were shared with Automotive Dive. Scaringe acknowledged recently-implemented organizational and leadership changes, but said the company needs to "do more to achieve our strategic priorities."
The fledgling automaker previously cut about 6% of employees at its headquarters in Irvine, California, in February 2023, according to The Verge. It laid off a similar percentage of workers in July 2022.
