Rivian layoffs: Electric SUV maker slashes hundreds of jobs in bid for profitability after R2 launch

Electric SUV maker Rivian Automotive (Nasdaq: RIVN) has cut hundreds of jobs as it seeks to achieve profitability, the company confirmed. The layoffs come just days after the automaker launched its new R2 mid-size SUVs to the public. Here’s what you need to know about Rivian’s layoffs and how the company’s stock price has reacted. What’s happened? Yesterday, Rivian confirmed it was initiating another round of job cuts. The last time the EV maker initiated mass layoffs was in October, when it laid off more than 600 workers following the Trump administration’s elimination of the 7,500 electric vehicle credit. At the time, the layoffs amounted to about 4.5 of its workforce. This time around, Rivian says the job cuts will affect fewer than 2 of its workforce. The latest job cuts were first reported by the Wall Street Journal. Rivian has just over 15,200 employees at the end of 2025, so a reduction of less than 2 in its workforce equates to around 300 job losses. The cuts will primarily affect those working in the company’s service and customer departments, which handle sales and marketing for Rivian. According to Reuters, those being laid off will have the option of applying for other open roles at the company. Why is Rivian laying off workers? Confirming the layoffs, a Rivian spokesperson issued a statement saying, “We recently restructured a handful of teams within Rivian as we work to profitably scale our business.” The keyword there is “profitably.” Though Rivian sold around 42,000 EVs last year, bringing in 5.4 billion in revenue, the company posted a 3.6 billion loss. As a matter of fact, since Rivian was founded in 2009, it has never posted a full year of profit. CNBC notes that in the company’s first quarter this year, its automotive segment lost around 6,000 for every vehicle it sold. Rivian is trying to turn its losses around with the launch of more affordable EVs, the latest of which, the R2 mid-size SUV, began delivering to customers last week. The R2 has a package price of around 58,000, making it much more affordable than Rivian’s R1S and R1T, which can each cost more than 100,000. The R2 is designed to enhance the brand’s affordability and expand its customer base beyond the luxury market. Of course, one could argue that commencing layoffs among those responsible for sales and marketing at the company right when it is launching a critical new product is the wrong way to support it, but Rivian obviously doesn’t see it that way. How has Rivian’s stock reacted to the layoffs? Investors typically cheer layoffs because eliminating human labor can be the fastest way for a company to reduce its financial overhead and thus increase its bottom line. But if Rivian executives were hoping for a stock price boost from its layoff announcement, they were left disappointed. After the layoffs were confirmed yesterday, RIVN shares closed down 4.5. The company’s stock price closed at 15.93, bringing the stock’s total losses since the year began to more than 19. Over the past 12 months, RIVN shares are still up by more than 15. In premarket trading today, as of the time of this writing, RIVN shares are back above the 16 mark, up about 0.56.