Rivian Automotive continued to make local, state, national and international news this past month for a variety of reasons. Here is a quick look at some of the stories.
Finances
On August 11th MarketWatch reported that Rivian lost nearly $2 billion in the second quarter and that the company expects a loss of $5.45 billion in 2022. Rivian has been dealing with supply-chain shortages, including ongoing issues with chips.
According to Market Watch the outlook for the second half of the year is improving. Rivian is also adding a second shift and reaffirmed its goal of making 25,000 electric vehicles this year.
Rivian: Layoffs, R1T Towing Issues, Fires and Amazon Van Deliveries
Car and Driver Test
On August 18th Car and Driver ran a story reporting on tests they made comparing the Hummer EV, Rivian R1T, and the Ford F-150 Lightning. The magazine praised all three vehicles ability to tow but criticized their range when towing. The Ford is limited to 100 miles, the Rivian, 110 and the Hummer 140.
Car and Driver pointed out that the Rivian has no adaptive cruise saying, “Adaptive cruise is available while towing in the Hummer and the Lightning, but not hands-free Super Cruise or BlueCruise, while the Rivian won’t allow the use of adaptive cruise control at all.”
So what is the big takeaway? That has to be the lack of towing range. No electric vehicle at this time is able to tow very far without a very inconvenient number of stops to disconnect your load to recharge being necessary. So if you are going to the lake for the weekend, have a great trip. But if you are thinking about going across country? Fuggedaboutit!
Subcontractors Sued
On August 23rd and 24th several sources, including Engineering News Record, (ENR) reported a contractor and subcontractor that worked on a project expanding Rivian’s plant agreed to pay $315,000 in unpaid wages and civil penalties as part of a settlement with the Illinois Dept. of Labor and the state attorney general’s office.
According to ENR, Guangzhou Mino Equipment Co. of China agreed to pay $170,000 and Florida-based BIW Automotive Solution Inc. will pay $145,000 as part of a consent decree in a case brought by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul’s office. The payments are to cover wages owed to 59 workers from a Mexican sub-contractor who had previously been denied overtime pay.
ENR also reported The Illinois attorney general’s office filed a lawsuit against Mexico-based SDS Industrialservicio S.A. de C.V.,. Raoul said SDS was also involved but has refused to cooperate with investigators or settle the case.
Rivian hired Mino to build assembly lines. Mino then subcontracted the work to BIW, which further subcontracted to SDS. SDS paid the workers, but the other companies had heavy influence on their working conditions.
Consequently the employees typically worked 70 hours a week. State law requires employees be paid time and a half for each hour of work beyond 40 in a week. SDS’s employees received no overtime pay.
This was the second settlement related to subcontracting on Rivian’s plant. In December, Raoul announced Mino and two other subcontractors, Spain-based IT8 Software Engineering S.L. and Mexico-based LAM Automation, had agreed to pay a combined $390,000 in owed overtime wages and penalties. IBEW Local 197 blew the whistle in this case.
Connect Transit Cobalt Route
Also on August 23rd the Connect Transit Board approved a new bus route to serve Rivian. The Route will run from Uptown Station to Rivian then to W. Market St. and from there to Downtown Bloomington. The route will then reverse its route back to Uptown Station. The new route replaces the old Lime route that ran on W. Market St.
In keeping with Connect Transit’s tradition of naming routes after colors the route is named the Cobalt route as a nod to the fact that Rivian does not use cobalt in its batteries.
The new service is scheduled to start on October 2nd to allow Rivian to complete construction at their facility designed to facilitate the service. The new route will have an estimated additional annual operating cost of $650,000.
Sexual Harassment Suit
On September 7th several news sources reported a former female employee at Rivian sued the company accusing it of allowing sexual harassment that created a hostile work place environment.
The former employee, who worked on the battery team for a few months, claims she faced derogatory comments, unwelcome sexual questions, being shown inappropriate pictures and unwanted sexual advances from male coworkers and managers. As a result the former employee claims she had no alternative but to leave her job in April.
Mercedes Partnership
Also on September 7th Mercedes-Benz Vans and Rivian announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to initiate a strategic partnership. The companies are planning to invest in, and operate a European factory to manufacture large electric vans for both Mercedes-Benz Vans and Rivian. The intent is to build an all-new electric-only production facility at at an existing Mercedes-Benz site in Central/Eastern Europe.
The companies vision is to produce two large vans, one based on the electric-only platform of Mercedes-Benz Vans, and the other based on the Rivian Light Van platform.
BARRON’S: Rivian Will Make All-Electric Commercial Vehicles with Mercedes
RJ Scaringe, Chief Executive Officer of Rivian said, “We’re delighted to be partnering with Mercedes-Benz on this project. Mercedes-Benz is one of the world’s best known and respected automotive companies, and we believe that together we will produce truly remarkable electric vans which will not only benefit our customers, but the planet.”
Mathias Geisen, Head of Mercedes-Benz Vans added, “MercedesBenz Vans has gained broad experience in producing and launching eVans since 2010. From 2025 onwards, all vans based on our new architecture VAN.EA will be electric-only. I am delighted that as part of this transformation we are now joining forces with Rivian.“
