CNBC: Rivian laying off hundreds of workers amid R2 launch

[Zathras]

Sad to see anyone lose their jobs but I do get the possible reasons. I went and saw an R2 at the University Village location in Seattle WA yesterday. There were 3 employees and I was the only one there for a while. The huge lack of knowledge they had on the R2 was astounding, along with their “yeah this is the cheaper version of the R1S” attitude. It’s the 4th time I’ve gone to that location and the first with them having the R2. The “I don’t know anything” and “I’m not here to/don’t care on selling you a car” attitude was honestly shocking.
I could have posed as an employee and known more

The fist person I talked to was just a volunteer at the time at the Del Mar store. That was back in May. His enthusiasm paid off because when I did the test drive a week ago, he was my "minder." And after asking some questions, he said, "You probably know more than I do." I'm guessing sales education has been low priority until now?

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[CrazyOne]

Well, How much did the CEO receive for pay
Taking one for the team

Rivian CEO and almost every other CEO would love to be a trillionaire and replace all workers with robots. Two things stopping them for now, they can't do it yet with current technology and they are worried about crashing the economy and there will be no one left to buy their products. I don't have any doubts about that.

I also want Rivian to exist as an alternative to the worse options and get better/cheaper so that I can keep my car for many years.

 

[VandalSibs]

Sad to see anyone lose their jobs but I do get the possible reasons. I went and saw an R2 at the University Village location in Seattle WA yesterday. There were 3 employees and I was the only one there for a while. The huge lack of knowledge they had on the R2 was astounding, along with their “yeah this is the cheaper version of the R1S” attitude. It’s the 4th time I’ve gone to that location and the first with them having the R2. The “I don’t know anything” and “I’m not here to/don’t care on selling you a car” attitude was honestly shocking.
I could have posed as an employee and known more

Technically in Washington, they still can't sell you a car. Like, they can't talk pricing or many other things that traditional salespeople do thanks to a dumb law that went on the books in 2014. The only 'sales' talk they are technically allowed to do is to direct you to the Rivian site and start the order process. Heck, Rivian only got the ability to do test drives (notice that they are called "Educational Drives" in Washington) in the last six or so months due to some loopholes figured out by the state.

This spring a law passed that resulted in Rivian (and Lucid) being allowed to be a 'dealership', but it doesn't take effect until October.

 

[RivAndy]

Technically in Washington, they still can't sell you a car. Like, they can't talk pricing or many other things that traditional salespeople do thanks to a dumb law that went on the books in 2014. The only 'sales' talk they are technically allowed to do is to direct you to the Rivian site and start the order process. Heck, Rivian only got the ability to do test drives (notice that they are called "Educational Drives" in Washington) in the last six or so months due to some loopholes figured out by the state.

This spring a law passed that resulted in Rivian (and Lucid) being allowed to be a 'dealership', but it doesn't take effect until October.

Yeah, I had to sign a form to acknowledge that I am doing an 'Educational drive' instead of a demo drive.

Are you sure about the October timeline? I was told July. If they can't sell a vehicle till October, that's going to change plans for me.

 

[VandalSibs]

Yeah, I had to sign a form to acknowledge that I am doing an 'Educational drive' instead of a demo drive.

Are you sure about the October timeline? I was told July. If they can't sell a vehicle till October, that's going to change plans for me.

They can't "sell". You can totally order and take delivery on Washington right now, it's just technically imported from Illinois. Even comes with Illinois temp plates.

I'd have to dive back into the language of the bill, but I'm about 75% sure the effective date is October.

EDIT: I was wrong - it's mid June, so a few days from now.

The part in regards to October that I was thinking of has to do with an overall change on dealership fees and how they are used/distributed.

 

[Jeremy3292]

I would like to point out that no one is immune from layoffs in the USA, despite how we may feel about it. Including Tesla and the federal government. The education sector is going to learn this shortly, from public school systems to colleges - a sector that has largely been immune from it in history.

 

[Dark-Fx]

I would like to point out that no one is immune from layoffs in the USA, despite how we may feel about it. Including Tesla and the federal government. The education sector is going to learn this shortly, from public school systems to colleges - a sector that has largely been immune from it in history.

Of the people I've seen mention their layoffs, none seem to be actually customer facing service folks like some are worried about. Of course I haven't heard from all ~2%... but...

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Of the people I've seen mention their layoffs, none seem to be actually customer facing service folks like some are worried about. Of course I haven't heard from all ~2%... but...

I saw one today claiming 90+ of those laid off were the entire diagnostics team. Doesn't sound right, but hard to tell who to believe.

 

[Dark-Fx]

I saw one today claiming 90+ of those laid off were the entire diagnostics team. Doesn't sound right, but hard to tell who to believe.

Maybe that had something to do with all of the 12V battery warnings we've seen lately? (Sorry Rivian friends)

Looks like that group was significantly remote.

 

[Weekend at Gary’s]

Yeah, I had to sign a form to acknowledge that I am doing an 'Educational drive' instead of a demo drive.

Are you sure about the October timeline? I was told July. If they can't sell a vehicle till October, that's going to change plans for me.

Andy - I bought R1S in 2025. Rivian streamlined this process (Illinois to Washington on paper). I had to do a video call with someone so they could “sign” the transfer to Washington (all lined up by Rivian). Then I picked up the car in Seattle (but hopefully the new law is updated this June as VandalSibs indicates!)

 

[Jeremy3292]

"The company said the cuts hit Rivian's service and customer organization, including sales and marketing teams."

From Reuters.

 

[VandalSibs]

I saw one today claiming 90+ of those laid off were the entire diagnostics team. Doesn't sound right, but hard to tell who to believe.

The only thing that I saw claiming that group was all laid-off was a reddit post that has since been deleted, and read like someone stuffed the claim into a LLM to write an essay.

 

[Dark-Fx]

The only thing that I saw claiming that group was all laid-off was a reddit post that has since been deleted, and read like someone stuffed the claim into a LLM to write an essay.

I just perused a lot of linkedin folks from that group, lots of open for work and lots of remote. Mentions of being part of the layoffs yesterday. I believe it, but I have no idea what that would mean for Rivian.

 

[andersonjanette]

Technically in Washington, they still can't sell you a car. Like, they can't talk pricing or many other things that traditional salespeople do thanks to a dumb law that went on the books in 2014. The only 'sales' talk they are technically allowed to do is to direct you to the Rivian site and start the order process. Heck, Rivian only got the ability to do test drives (notice that they are called "Educational Drives" in Washington) in the last six or so months due to some loopholes figured out by the state.

This spring a law passed that resulted in Rivian (and Lucid) being allowed to be a 'dealership', but it doesn't take effect until October.

totally understand that, but the guy that helped me literally didn’t know anything about the car. How to open the frunk, how to put down just the middle part of the back seat, etc. pretty basic stuff if you’re getting paid to work for Rivian. The next gal I went up to talked about the R2 like it was a 10k model and “that’s what you get if you don’t want an R1”. The whole experience was just super odd. If I was told later that 3 friends said they’d cover for their employee friends for a few hours . . . That might have made more sense

 

[MClayton]

Anyone surprised by the layoffs is living in a different era.

Rivian is no different than other large tech company, profits come first and people last.

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