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- Rivian announced on October 23 that it was laying off 4.5% of its workforce.The company put affected employees on paid administrative leave for 60 days.Laid-off workers will receive a severance package determined by their level and tenure.
Rivian, the California-based EV automaker, is putting its employees who were affected by the company's most recent round of layoffs on paid administrative leave for the next 60 days, according to documents obtained by Business Insider.
CEO RJ Scaringe told employees in an internal memo sent October 23 that the company was cutting around 4.5% of its workforce — more than 600 employees — citing "the need to profitably scale our business" and to prepare for Rivian's R2 SUV launch next year.
According to a document outlining "Key Dates and Resources," affected employees will remain on the company payroll until December 23, receiving full pay and benefits for a period of 60 days.
The pay received during the administrative leave period — about 8.5 weeks — will be deducted from the final severance pay, according to the documents.
Severance pay is determined by the role — identified as "RIV Grade Level" — and tenure of Rivian employees, the documents said. The grade levels are from 1 to 11, according to the documents.
For example, employees at "RIV Grades 1-4" can receive up to 10 weeks of pay. That includes the 8.5 weeks of pay during administrative leave. A Rivian employee who was impacted by the layoffs told Business Insider that grades 1-4 include entry- and mid-level employees.
For "RIV Grades 8-9," employees will receive seven weeks of pay, plus four weeks' pay for each year of service, which totals to 22 weeks of pay, the documents said. The Rivian employee said level 8 employees include roles such as principal engineer or director, while level 9 includes senior directors.
Grades 10 to 11, which include vice president roles, according to the source, can receive up to 28 weeks of pay.
Affected employees have from December 23 to January 1, 2026, to sign the release agreement in order to receive severance pay.
Marina Hoffman, a Rivian spokesperson, told Business Insider in an email that the band levels are similar to many public companies and that the levels "correspond to positions and responsibilities."
"Affected employees are eligible for rehire and encouraged to apply to other open positions for consideration within Rivian," Hoffman wrote.
Under a document titled "Employee FAQs," eligible workers will continue to receive any payouts for patent-filing awards until the December 23 separation date.
Similarly, any restricted stock units — or compensation received in the form of stock — that weren't vested will be forfeited after December 23.
Rivian is also offering career-transition and resume services starting Thursday.
Hoffman declined to comment on individual severance packages.
Scaringe told Business Insider in an interview the day before layoffs were announced that Rivian was at an "inflection point" and that it was the most important time in the company's history.
"For us to become a company of the scale we aspire to be, which is producing many millions of cars a year, we're not going to get there with a $90,000 single flagship product," he said. "We need R2, we need R3. And so R2 is the critical step to get there, and if we don't make that step, if we don't launch R2, we'll stay a fairly small company."
The workforce reduction represents one of several rounds of layoffs that Rivian has conducted in the past three years. Its most recent layoffs come as the EV industry faces headwinds from slowing consumer adoption and shifting federal regulations.
In September, the $7,500 federal tax credit for EV purchases came to an end, pushing automakers to come up with alternative forms of discounts.
General Motors on Wednesday announced that it would lay off about 1,750 employees, citing changes in the EV market.
"In response to slower near-term EV adoption and an evolving regulatory environment, General Motors is realigning EV capacity," a GM spokesperson told Business Insider. "Despite these changes, GM remains committed to our US manufacturing footprint."
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