“Our business is facing a challenging macroeconomic environment — including historically high-interest rates and geopolitical uncertainty — and we need to make purposeful changes now to ensure our promising future," Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe wrote in an email to employees. "We must strategically prioritize our growth areas of the business, including the launch of Peregrine and R2 as well as investing in our go-to-market capabilities. We’ve recently implemented several organizational and leadership changes, but we need to do more to achieve our strategic priorities."

Ford Motor Co. last month said it was reducing production of the all-electric F-150 Lightning truck to one shift starting April 1, affecting 1,400 jobs in Dearborn, to balance production and consumer demand. Roughly 700 workers were expected to take advantage of the 900 positions being hired in Wayne for a new third shift assembling Bronco SUVs and Ranger midsize trucks, which are both gas-powered vehicles. Other workers affected received job offers at other nearby plants. Ford posted $4.3 billion in profit last year, though its Model e EV division lost $4.7 billion.

“We are taking advantage of our manufacturing flexibility to offer customers choices while balancing our growth and profitability," CEO Jim Farley previously said in a statement.

General Motors Co. late last year laid off 945 workers at its Orion Assembly plant in Michigan after ending production of the all-electric Bolt EV and EUV. All of the employees have been offered transfers to other plants, according to GM. The Orion plant will eventually reopen for electric truck production. GM last year delayed launch of the trucks there by one year until late 2025.

GM also late last year laid off 369 employees working at the Lansing Grand River Assembly plant in Michigan after ending production of the Chevrolet Camaro muscle car. According to GM, two-thirds of the eligible represented employees affected by the end of Camaro production have been offered work.

Meanwhile, Stellantis NV is launching its first electric vehicles this year in North America. Since ratifying a new contract with the UAW that included a buyout offer this year, the automaker has announced several rounds of job cuts across its U.S. footprint, affecting hundreds of workers and particularly on-call, lower-paid supplemental workers. The automaker has cited efficiency and contractual commitments in the decisions. Stellantis posted a record $20 billion net profit in 2023.

Bumpy ride for autonomy

Autonomous vehicle companies have also cut jobs to keep down costs amid a bumpy forecast for the widespread rollout and acceptance of robotaxis and other automated services.

GM's embattled Cruise LLC autonomous vehicle unit in December laid off 24% of its workforce amid a series of changes it's undertaking while under scrutiny for its safety standards. Cruise has hired a new chief safety officer and is working to regain the trust of the public and regulators before relaunching its services.

Last month, Hyundai Motor Co.-backed Motional made a less than 5% staff reduction in non-technical roles "to reallocate resources to areas of the company that will directly enable long-term success," according to a statement sent by spokesperson Akshay Jaising. The cut came after the operator of a robotaxi service in Las Vegas lost auto supplier Aptiv PLC as a backer. Motional also has an autonomous pilot with Uber Eats in Santa Monica, California.

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