Rivian Lays Off Hundreds From Service Teams a Week After R2 Launch
Rivian confirmed Tuesday that it is cutting hundreds of jobs, less than 2% of its workforce, with the reductions landing inside its service and customer organization. The Wall Street Journal reported the move first, and Rivian verified it shortly after.
The timing stands out. R2 deliveries officially began on June 9, so these cuts arrive almost exactly one week into the launch of the vehicle Rivian has positioned as its path into the mainstream market.
A company spokesperson said the affected teams sit within the service and customer segments, which also cover sales and marketing. In a short statement, Rivian said it “recently restructured a handful of teams within Rivian as we work to profitably scale our business.”
For scale, Rivian ended last year with 15,232 employees across North America and Europe. Reporting puts this round at more than 300 people. It is at least the fourth set of cuts the company has made since the start of 2024. The largest came in October, when Rivian reduced its team by roughly 4.5% in a restructuring that hit marketing, vehicle operations, and sales.
The financial picture is the backdrop here. Rivian lost about $3.63 billion in 2025 while delivering 42,247 vehicles, an 18% drop from the year before, pressured in part by the end of the $7,500 federal EV credit. The automotive side still loses money on every vehicle it sells. The company has pushed its first annual profit target out toward 2027.
Worth noting, the cuts do not mean Rivian is shrinking overall. The company added roughly 1,800 employees through the first five months of 2026, mostly to staff the R2 production ramp and its autonomy program. The net headcount change from this week is small against that earlier expansion.
Rivian has guided for 20,000 to 25,000 R2 deliveries this year inside a total target of 62,000 to 67,000 vehicles. Every R2 routes to a buyer’s nearest Service and Demo Center rather than the factory, which keeps that service network central to the rollout even as it takes the cuts.
I’ll have to trust the decision makers on this one, but it is concerning for a company that needs to scale UP responsiveness, especially on service, right now. Would be interested to know how Rj’s recent comments about long service wait times being a thing of the past aligns with this. Of course, “service” jobs might not be what we are thinking in terms of “boots on the ground doing repairs”.
Based on how badly their AI bot works in the app I am terrified about how this is going to work (because let’s be honest, they are laying these people off and replacing it with AI). I wish I could say I don’t see how this could go wrong but all I see is ways in which this is going to go wrong.
Cuts are in sales and marketing departments. It shouldn’t really affect delivers or the ability to service the cars. Good place to make cuts.
Support center techs as well.
Maybe the new R2 has been so simplified and improved, the need for service personnel has been reduced…along with R2 pre-launch marketing activities over, and the fact that orders vastly outnumber capacity. Now Rivian needs to address filling those orders, an with highly reliable vehicles.
Rivian has much bigger problems than 300 workers. A CEO and executive team that have no ability to sell, market, and service automobiles. The R1S SUV has been available for 3 years with no obvious competition and they’ve sold 30,000 per year – this number should be 200,000. R2 is less margin with more demand on their infrastructure, unlikely to see anything that moves the dial financially.
You love to cut and paste your comments all over the internet about how bad Rivian is doing 😹