EVwire brief: Rivian has laid off several hundred people across its service and customer organization, a reduction of less than 2% of its workforce that the company confirmed on Tuesday.
What makes the move land harder is the calendar. Rivian only began delivering the R2 on June 9, the model it is counting on to reach past its premium base, which puts these cuts barely a week into that launch.
The cuts were first reported by The Wall Street Journal, with Rivian verifying them soon after. A spokesperson placed the affected roles inside the service and customer group, the same organization that also runs sales and marketing. In the company's own words, Rivian "recently restructured a handful of teams within Rivian as we work to profitably scale our business."
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Rivian R2 deliveries just started this month
Rivian closed last year with 15,232 employees across North America and Europe, and the latest round reportedly runs to more than 300 people. Counting this recent round, the company has trimmed its workforce at least four times since the start of 2024. The deepest of those landed last October, when the company cut around 4.5% of its headcount.
Rivian added close to 1,800 people over the first five months of 2026, most of them tied to the R2 production ramp and its autonomy program, which makes this week's reduction modest by comparison.
The sales volume of the R2 is expected to demand a stronger service network
Context:
Rivian booked a loss of roughly $3.63 billion in 2025 on 42,247 deliveries, down 18% from the prior year, with the expiry of the $7,500 federal EV credit cutting into demand. It still loses money on each vehicle it builds, and management has pushed its first full-year profit targets to next year.
Where the cuts fall is what makes the recent rounds interesting. Every R2 order is fulfilled through a buyer's nearest Service and Demo Center rather than the factory, which puts the service network at the heart of the R2 rollout that just began. Rivian is guiding for 20,000 to 25,000 R2 deliveries this year, inside a full-year target of 62,000 to 67,000 vehicles.
Hat tip to Jose at RivianTrackr, who flagged the cuts early and whose reporting helped us pin down the details.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, RivianTrackr
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