Gloomy skies seem to be ahead for the electric car industry, as one major Tesla (TSLA) -) competitor recently made a dramatic change amongst its rank-and-file.
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Electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian (RIVN) -) let go of 20 members of its long-range battery cell development team this week.
As per an exclusive report by The Information, the layoffs at the makers of the R1T electric pickup truck and Amazon's electric delivery vans include the company's lead cell engineer and former Tesla senior manager Victor Prajapati.
A spokesperson for the Tesla rival confirmed to Benzinga that the layoffs affected "less than 8%" of its battery team, noting that priorities are shifting toward developing batteries for more affordable vehicles.
"While we place a very high value on the cell engineering competence we have built at Rivian, we're focusing the team on R2 [compact SUV] and its defined programs," the spokesperson said.
Currently, Rivian sources its battery cells from Samsung SDI in South Korea, where it is assembled into battery packs in its plant in Normal, Illinois.
At an appearance at Barclays 2023 Global Automotive & Mobility Tech Conference on November 29, Rivian CFO Claire McDonough shared that the evolution and simplification of battery technology is key to lowering its production costs and increasing its profitability.
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"We’re introducing a new battery as well, for the R1 vehicles. That very heavily simplifies the battery pack and module structure that we will be building and takes thousands of dollars of costs out, additional mass out, is much easier to manufacturer and build as well, within the vehicles," McDonough said. "So that’s another example of some of the new technologies that will be coming into place next year that is a key enabler for the operational efficiency, including cost efficiency, that will get unlocked with these introductions."
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