Rivian COO Rod Copes officially stepped down on Monday, after being in the position since March 2020, and just as the company begins ramping up production of the R1S, according to the Wall Street Journal.
A Rivian spokesperson confirmed to the WSJ Copes retired from the automaker back in December, and was planned ahead of time. Cope’s duties have been taken over by the rest of the Rivian executive team.
The news comes just weeks after Rivian had to delay the delivery of some of its orders to 2023 upon hitting 71,000 pre-orders, and months after Rivian had the year’s largest IPO, raising $11.9 billion USD.
After the resignation announcement, Rivian’s (RIVN) shares dropped 5.3 percent to $77.16 during Monday’s after-hours trading – marking a price below the company’s recent IPO which valued the shares at $78.
In addition to delaying several orders, Rivian posted a Q3 net loss of $1.2 billion ahead of the company’s upcoming Georgia factory.
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Copes updated his LinkedIn profile in December saying that he had officially left the company. Currently, his LinkedIn says he is “retired from Rivian”.
Despite the Monday resignation announcement, the company said that it had planned for Copes’ exit, phasing his position out over the course of several months to maintain a steady flow of responsibilities among Rivian executives.
Last month, Rivian also delivered its first R1S units to Founder RJ Scaringe and CFO Claire McDonough.
In addition, Rivian’s R1T electric pickup was named the 2022 Motortrend Truck of the Year, which some firms like Morgan Stanley have said may make Rivian the only automaker to effectively challenge Tesla.
Correction: Rivian’s COO resigned, not the CEO as previously stated.
