Rivian said it is laying off hundreds of employees, or less than 2% of its workforce, as part of restructuring efforts aimed at making the company profitable for the first time.
The layoffs come a week after the Irvine-based electric vehicle maker began deliveries of its long-awaited R2 SUV.
The company hopes that the R2, which is currently only available as a high-performance version for $57,990, can attract more customers with its lower price.
But industry analysts said R2's performance is still not affordable for many Americans, and investors reacted with disappointment to the first deliveries on June 9, with shares falling 7% that day. On Wednesday, Rivian shares gained 0.33 points, or 2%, to close at $16.26.
The company said a standard version of the R2 starting at $44,990 will be available next year.
The layoffs took effect Monday and affected Rivian's customer service and organization employees, including sales and marketing teams. Rivian employed 15,232 people in December.
“We recently restructured a handful of teams within Rivian as we work to profitably scale our business,” a company spokesperson said.
The laid-off employees have received severance packages and are encouraged to apply for other open positions at Rivian, the company said.
Rivian may be trying to achieve profitability by saving money on labor, said Ivan Drury, chief insights officer at Edmunds.
“You have to wonder to what extent they plan to replace those people with some level of artificial intelligence and automation,” he said.
Rivian, which is pouring money into autonomous vehicle projects including a robotaxi partnership with Uber, has struggled to turn a profit on its luxury electric vehicles.
The layoffs are likely not directly related to the recent reception of the R2, said automotive analyst Brian Moody.
“I think it's a decline in interest in new electric cars and maybe a decline in interest in expensive things,” he said. “We can assume that [layoff] The process began long before the release of R2.”
The company lost $3.6 billion last year and recently said it no longer expects to meet its 2027 adjusted core profit target.
There has been a general cooling of the electric vehicle market. Major automakers, including Honda and Ford, have reduced their electric vehicle options as enthusiasm for the vehicles has waned under the Trump administration. A $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles expired in September.
Rivian cut 4.5% of its workforce in October, or more than 600 jobs, after the loan expired. The company also laid off about 200 employees in September.
In a recent turnaround, Rivian surprised the market with strong earnings results in February, reporting 2025 gross profits of $144 million compared to a 2024 net loss of $1.2 billion. Gross profit is the income without subtracting the cost of production expenses.
In its earnings release, Rivian attributed the turnaround to “strong software and services performance, higher average selling prices, and reductions in cost per vehicle.”
“The company has never posted a full year's worth of profits, and this is the only lever they can pull to right-size things,” Drury said.
