Irvine-based Rivian Automotive is laying off 92 people at several Orange County facilities, effective June 18, the latest in a series of cost-cutting efforts by the electric automaker.
The cuts come just two months after the automaker trimmed 191 salaried jobs based in the county. That round focused on product teams and those in the company’s commercial EV business. The latest round of cuts mostly affects support and office workers.
Also see: Are EV sales declines in California just a blip or a long-term trend?
The company in a letter to the state’s Employment Development Department said the pending layoffs in Orange County span three cities, including four addresses in Irvine, one in Costa Mesa and another in Tustin.
The largest “workforce adjustment” is happening in Irvine, where 89 jobs will be terminated, effective near June 18.
Rivian, like many other automakers in the EV sector, has seen a stall in vehicle demand after a surge of buying in the past five years. Tesla in April said it would cut 10% of workers after dismal sales so far this year. A year ago, the company laid off 239 workers at Costa Mesa and Tustin operation centers.
In the EDD letter, Rivian’s vice president of people Scott Griffin said the layoffs were permanent and that no facilities would close as a result of them.
The layoffs in Irvine include facilities at 40 Parker, 14600 Myford (company headquarters), 119 Waterworks and 1751 Kettering in Irvine. One layoff was noted at 261 Briggs in Costa Mesa and another two at 14192 Franklin in Tustin.
The latest Orange County jobs being eliminated cover a broad range of skills from customer support to purchase operations and human resources. Several directors also are being terminated, including those in talent acquisition and product research analytics. Other cuts fall into categories listed in the EDD letter as assistant managers, delivery and controller departments, senior director positions, material handlers and recruiters.
The company also is terminating 29 positions in the Bay Area.
The jobs cuts coming in June are part of a broader effort to trim Rivian’s staff by 1%. “We continue to work to right-size the business and ensure alignment to our priorities,” the company said in an emailed statement to Bloomberg. “This was a difficult decision, but a necessary one to support our goal to be gross margin positive by the end of the year.”
A year ago in April, Rivian cut 239 workers in Orange County as it culled the company’s workforce by 6%. It also cut 240 jobs in the Bay Area that month.
Rivian in recent months halted its plans to build a production facility in Georgia. Instead, the automaker is expanding its Normal, Ill., facility with help from state tax incentives. The company said it’s getting incentives valued at $827 million.
