Rivian Automotive Inc. has announced that it would have to lay off a large chunk of its workforce as the EV truck company continues to grapple with supply-chain issues, high costs, and economic volatility.
Gen Z Conservative reported that “[Rivian] is planning hundreds of layoffs to trim its workforce in areas where the electric-vehicle maker has grown too quickly, according to people familiar with the matter.”
“The cuts will focus on non-manufacturing roles, including teams with duplicate functions, said the people, who asked not to be identified as discussing private information. The actions could be announced in the coming weeks,” the report continued.
A previously up-and-coming EV truck company, Rivian has been seen as a top contender in the pack of EV startups chasing market leader Tesla Inc. But the company has struggled with production at its plant in Normal, Illinois.
“Our core focus remains on ramping production,” the company said in the statement. “However,
we believe that supply-chain constraints will continue to be the limiting factor of our production.”
While Rivian is expected to cut its workforce, the company still rose above expectations in terms of sales. Rivian ended the quarter with $364 million in sales despite analysts predicting fewer sales.
Company shares also rose less than 1% in the afternoon in late New York trading, paring a loss of as much as 6.7%. The stock fell 62% this year through Thursday’s close.
Similarly, small EV company Lucid is also slashing its production forecast for 2022, revising its production expectations from 20,000 to just around 6,000.
“Our revised production guidance reflects the extraordinary supply chain and logistics challenges we encountered,” said Peter Rawlinson, Lucid’s CEO and CTO, in a statement. “We’ve identified the primary bottlenecks, and we are taking appropriate measures – bringing our logistics operations in-house, adding key hires to the executive team, and restructuring our logistics and manufacturing organization. We continue to see strong demand for our vehicles, with over 37,000 customer reservations, and I remain confident that we shall overcome these near-term challenges.”
Lucid also reported a $220 million loss on revenue of $97.3 million, having only delivered 679 vehicles to customers over the past three months. Overall, the company said it lost $4.8 billion in 2021.
