March 24 (Reuters) – Rivian Automotive Inc (RIVN.O) is relocating parts of its manufacturing engineering team to Illinois to speed up production, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The reorganization, expected to be announced soon, would mean those working on manufacturing engineering would be asked to relocate to central Illinois or its headquarters in Irvine, California, according to the WSJ report.

« In terms of ramping production, it’s helpful to have the manufacturing and engineering teams closer to our facilities in Normal as well as our headquarters in Irvine, » a Rivian spokesperson told Reuters, but declined to confirm if the company was relocating teams.

Rivian, which makes R1T electric pickup trucks and R1S SUVs at its factory in Normal, Illinois, in February forecast 2023 production below analysts’ expectations as it grapples with lingering supply chain snarls.

The electric-vehicle maker has been losing money on every vehicle it builds, and narrowly missed its annual production target of 25,000 units last year.

Investors have been unnerved by weakening demand for EVs as interest rate hikes and fears of a looming recession creep in.

Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Abhirup Roy in San Francisco; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar

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