Rivian Is Relocating Engineers in Hopes of Boosting Production

The young company is in part trying to centralize more of its workforce. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Rivian hired engineers wherever it could find them and allowed them to work remotely, the person familiar with the plans said.

As a result its employees are scattered across the U.S. in states like Michigan, Texas and Virginia, in addition to those located at the headquarters and in Illinois, the person added.

The relocations come as Rivian is overhauling its sole production facility to expand both the speed and capacity of its assembly lines. The team being relocated to Normal, Ill. is responsible for the design and functioning of the factory, from the machines that help build the vehicles to layout of the assembly line. [...]

So far, management has had some conversations with the manufacturing-engineering team, and a few dozen employees have indicated an unwillingness to move, the person said. For those who won’t relocate, Rivian plans to offer them severance and fill vacancies created with new hires, the person said.

The company, which employs about 14,000 workers, went public in late 2021 and grew rapidly during a period where remote work was the norm.

When EU countries approve the 2035 phaseout law, the Commission will create a new EU vehicle category for cars that can only run on carbon-neutral fuels.

The Commission will then present another regulation specifying how these cars can contribute to the 2035 target, the document said.

This will take the form of a delegated act - a type of law that is difficult for EU countries and lawmakers to reject. As an extra reassurance to Germany, the Commission said if this law were to be rejected, it would “follow another legislative path” to allow e-fuel car sales.

The deal paves the way for EU countries’ ministers to finally approve the 2035 phaseout law for new combustion engine cars on Tuesday, allowing it to enter into force.

Italy, which wants cars that run on biofuels to also be exempted from the 2035 phaseout, on Monday tried unsuccessfully to delay the vote.

The trial is scheduled to last five days. Last year, a judge slashed the $137 million verdict that the jury awarded in 2021 to plaintiff Owen Diaz, one of the largest ever in a U.S. workplace discrimination case. Diaz’s lawyers rejected the lower payout and opted for a new trial on damages.

After the 2021 trial, U.S. District Judge William Orrick agreed with a jury that Tesla was liable for race discrimination but cut the verdict to $15 million. Orrick is also presiding over this week’s trial, and has barred both sides from presenting new evidence or calling new witnesses. [...]

The jury in 2021 awarded Diaz nearly $7 million in compensatory damages for emotional distress, and $130 million in punitive damages, designed to punish unlawful conduct and deter it in the future.

Orrick last year reduced the compensatory damages to $1.5 million and the punitive damages to $13.5 million. He said that sum acknowledged the pervasive harassment Diaz faced while reflecting that he had worked at the factory for only nine months and had not alleged any physical injury or illness.

Even numbers will be used for EV-only models, while odd numbers will designate internal combustion ones, including plug-in hybrids, Duesmann told journalists last week at Audi’s annual news conference. The Heilbronner Stimme, a German newspaper, first reported the change.

“We are expanding our product portfolio with new electric-drive models and that is why we are restructuring our naming conventions,” he said.

The brand’s first full-electric vehicle was the E-tron, a large SUV that was launched in 2019; it also sells the E-tron GT, a large four-door sporty sedan.

Currently Audi’s alphanumeric model names do not make a distinction between powertrains. The range starts with the small A1, and goes up to the A8 flagship sedan, Q8 SUV and R8 sports car.

German rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz have their own naming conventions for EVs, with Mercedes adding “EQ” to its letter series, while BMW adds an “i” to its number series.

Mercedes plans to drop the EQ designation, starting as early as 2024, according to German news reports.

The company said its Chief Accounting Officer Alexandra Brooks will serve as interim finance chief, effective April 1.

The company, which operates the Hertz, Dollar and Thrifty vehicle rental brands, said it was starting a formal search process for a CFO.

Toyoda was born in Japan on June 11, 1894. His father Sakichi Toyoda was an inventor of textile machinery, including an automatic loom, and founded Toyoda Loom Works. (People called him “Japan’s Thomas Edison.”) By the late 1920s, Kiichiro Toyoda, who worked for his father’s company, had begun plans to develop an automobile. (Sakichi Toyoda died on October 30, 1930, at the age of 63.) In 1933, Kiichiro Toyoda established an auto division within Toyoda Loom Works, which released a prototype vehicle two years later. In 1937, Toyota Motor Corporation was formed as a spinoff of Toyoda Loom Works. (“Toyota” was reportedly considered a luckier name than “Toyoda” and is easier to write in Japanese characters).

The new car company initially looked to the U.S. auto industry for inspiration. According to The New York Times: “Over the years of its rise to the top, Toyota has made no secret of how much it has learned from Detroit. Its first car, the AA, was a blatant copy of (or an homage to) a Chevrolet sedan. Its executives scoured every corner of the Ford Motor Company in the 1950s, taking home ideas to Japan that later inspired the Toyota Production System.”

Kiichiro Toyoda died in 1952, but his company continued to grow. In 1966, Toyota introduced its compact Corolla model, which in 1997 became the world’s best-selling car, with more than 35 million sold at the time. The oil crisis of the 1970s made Toyota’s small, fuel-efficient vehicles increasingly attractive in America. In the 1980s, the automaker launched the popular Camry compact car and 4Runner sport utility vehicle. Toyota’s luxury car line, Lexus, debuted in the U.S. in 1989. The automaker introduced the planet’s first mass-produced hybrid vehicle, the Prius, in 1997 in Japan and worldwide in 2001. By the end of the 1990s, Toyota had produced over 100 million vehicles in Japan.