Jeff Bezos-backed carmaker Rivian plans second round of layoffs this year - ... trends now
EV-maker Rivian is planning a second round of layoffs for the year amid a drop in demand for electric vehicles.
The Jeff Bezos-backed company cut 10 percent of its 16,790 employees across North America and Europe in February and is now planning to let go another one percent.
Bezos has invested $700 million into the carmaker, making him the largest shareholder, with Amazon owning a 17 percent stake in the company.
The latest round of layoffs follows Tesla owner Elon Musk's decision to remove a whopping 14,000 jobs in factories across the country this week.
The Rivian R1T Pickup truck (pictured) has undergone a price cut of $3,100 as global EV sales drop and companies scramble to introduce cost-cutting measures
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos invested $7 billion in Rivian in 2019 to receive a fleet of 100,000 EV delivery vans by the end of the decade
Despite Rvian's sales doubling in 2023, it is reportedly facing the same downfalls as other companies after electric vehicle enthusiasts already bought their cars, meaning less enthused car buyers aren't joining the throng to give up their gas-guzzling alternative.
After Rivian's job cuts, its shares dropped from 3.4 percent on Wednesday to just one percent by the end of the following day.
'This was a difficult decision, but a necessary one to support our goal to be gross margin positive by the end of the year,' Rivian told Business Insider.
Rivian laid off six percent of its workerforce to reduce costs in February 2023 and laid off 20 battery cell development workers in December of the same year.
The company has taken steps to reduce costs by building some of its car parts in-house and
