rivan has made some big changes in a drive to cut costs and turn its first profit the electric vehicle maker has removed over 500 parts from the design of its Flagship SUVs and pickups and over a 100 steps in the battery making process CEO RJ scarin says the retooling of its manufacturing process adds up to a 35% reduction in cost of materials for Vans with similar savings for other lines and while we took a lot of content out in terms of part count or part simplification really that wasn't something that's customer facing the customer facing aspects of the vehicle are a lot better Reuters got an exclusive look inside rivan's Illinois Factory at a time when cost cutting is critical for rivan and other EV startups High interest rates are turning some potential customers off EVS which are usually more expensive to buy than gas powered vehicles market leader Tesla has slashed prices but some smaller EV makers have filed for bankruptcy rivan is on more solid Financial ground but it's never turned a quarterly net profit since its founding in 2009 it lost 1.5 billion in the first quarter and loses almost $39,000 on every vehicle investors are Keen to know more about the size and pace of savings after a 3-we shutdown in April rivan says it's banking on cost savings to turn a gross profit this year it's really important that these vehicles are profitable in addition to simplified assembly the second generation of rivian's R1 vehicles have companyb built drive units upgraded software and new battery packs vice president of manufacturing Tim Fallon we've really been able to understand what we need to do to continue to move forward uh and really be smarter about what we're doing and not just Brute Force our way into it rivan is aiming to make 57,000 Vehicles this year almost the same as last year shares in the company have haved this year and C and short-term Investments fell by about $1.5 billion in the first quarter rivan has said it has enough Capital to launch the less expensive and smaller R2 SUVs in early 2026 with a price tag of $45,000 one expert told Reuters he believed reducing the cost per vehicle would give rivan some breathing room and could calm the fears of some investors