Rivian shuts down all facilities over COVID-19 pandemic concerns

Rivian, the buzzy electric powered car startup that is backed by Amazon and Ford, is shutting down all of its services thanks to the unfold of COVID-19, the sickness brought on by coronavirus.

Rivian employs additional than 2,000 employees throughout several spots, such as its headquarters in Plymouth, Mich., a manufacturing facility in Standard, Unwell. as very well as operations in San Jose and Irvine, Calif., exactly where engineers are functioning on autonomous car know-how. Rivian also has an place of work in the U.K.

The firm stated Friday that salaried and hourly workers will go on to be paid during the shutdown. Rivian told TechCrunch that most of its services have been at 2 to 5{7e488363c11ee5ef50445c8c4fa770b6e6e4f99e57faea264a05ac52abb3ffe0} occupancy for about a 7 days. The length of the shutdown is undetermined at this time, a firm spokesperson stated.

Update: To hold our groups safe and sound and slow the unfold of COVID-19, we have shut down all Rivian services. We are fully commited to absolutely everyone on our group. Both equally our salaried and hourly workforce will go on to be paid during this shutdown. Stay safe and sound absolutely everyone.

— Rivian (@Rivian)
March twenty, 2020

Rivian invested the majority of its lifestyle in the shadows until November 2018, when it uncovered its all-electric powered R1T pickup and R1S SUV at the LA Auto Exhibit. Due to the fact then, the electric powered automaker has picked up traders and industrial clients such as Ford and Amazon, in addition to the reservations buyers have designed for its pickup and SUV.

In December, Rivian declared it had lifted $one.3 billion in new funding, the fourth spherical of cash declared by the firm in 2019 by itself. It adopted prior announcements of $seven hundred million led by Amazon, $500 million from Ford (which includes a collaboration on electric powered car know-how) and $350 million from Cox Automotive.

Lincoln, the luxury manufacturer less than Ford, is functioning with Rivian to produce an “all-new” electric powered car. Amazon has requested 100,000 all-electric powered shipping and delivery vans from Rivian, with the to start with deliveries envisioned to start in 2021.

The world-wide COVID-19 pandemic has prompted automakers to briefly suspend operations in Europe and the U.S., exactly where the sickness has started to unfold. In China, exactly where the sickness to start with started, factories are coming back again on the web.

Automakers have had varied responses to the pandemic some took motion to suspend production a lot quicker than many others. Honda kicked off closures in the U.S. Ford, GM and FCA adopted following the Major 3 shaped a endeavor pressure with the United Auto Staff. Even as these automakers began implementing new security safety measures in its factories primarily based on suggestions that came out of the endeavor pressure, the UAW continued to strain them to close. A few of circumstances of workers screening beneficial for COVID-19 accelerated the closures. Nissan and Volkswagen have also paused operations in the U.S.

Tesla has been a notable holdout. The firm declared Thursday it would shut down its Fremont, Calif. manufacturing facility, beginning March 23. The final decision to suspend production there came days following Alameda County officers issued an get to close all nonessential enterprises. Tesla stored its doors open up anyway, even following officers publicly stated that it was not an necessary company.

Tesla has suspended operations at its New York manufacturing facility as very well. Tesla’s gigafactory close to Reno, Nev., which generates electric powered motors and battery packs, is fully operational.

Tesla told workers in an electronic mail despatched March eighteen, and considered by TechCrunch, that it was being open up due to the fact it has had “conflicting steerage from diverse levels of government” in excess of no matter whether it could function. The human sources office told workers in the electronic mail to arrive to perform if their job is to create, services, produce or check its electric vehicles.

But by Thursday, and following conferences with county officers, the firm declared it would suspend production. Some primary operations that will support Tesla’s charging infrastructure and what it describes as its “vehicle and vitality companies operations” will go on at the manufacturing facility, which less than standard circumstances has additional than ten,000 individuals functioning there.

This post originally appeared on TechCrunch.

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