according to drive Tesla rivian has revamped its manufacturing to cut costs and improve efficiency the company shut down its Illinois Factory for nearly a month earlier this year this led to a 35% reduction in material costs for its Vans CEO RJ scaring says over 100 steps were removed from the battery making process and 52 pieces of equipment were eliminated from The Body Shop they also cut over 500 parts from the r1t and r1s Designs rivan second generation R1 Vehicles now feature in housebuilt drive units upgraded software and simplified battery packs the new battery packs come in a single piece reducing complexity and Manufacturing time a new vehicle architecture Cuts 1.6 Mi of wiring per vehicle boosting efficiency by 30% rivian has yet to achieve a quarterly net profit the company reported a $1.5 billion loss in the first quarter of 2024 each vehicle sold incurs a loss of nearly $39,000 rivian's cash reserves fell by $1.5 billion to just under $8 billion however they plan to launch the $45,000 R2 SUV in early 2026 the Illinois plant will produce the R2 SUV saving $2 billion and accelerating the launch the R2 model has already garnered over 68,000 reservations within 24 hours you are listening to Yuan news