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By Abhirup Roy
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Rivian’s head of producing is leaving the electrical car startup to affix Stellantis at a time when the maker of Jeep SUVs and Ram pickups is making ready to launch a variety of battery powered vehicles.
Tim Fallon will be a part of Stellantis as its head of producing in North America efficient Sept 2, Stellantis mentioned in an announcement.
Rivian, identified for its R1S SUVs and R1T pickups, appointed its head of logistics Carlo Materazzo, a former Stellantis government, to supervise manufacturing within the interim, CEO RJ Scaringe mentioned in an inside e-mail seen by Reuters.
Fallon’s exit comes at a vital time for Rivian, which is increasing its solely facility in Regular, Illinois to provide the smaller and cheaper R2 SUV that many analysts see as crucial to the startup’s success amid a slowdown in demand for EVs.
Fallon, a former Nissan government, oversaw a producing plant overhaul this yr at Rivian, which included a three-week shutdown of the Regular plant, meant to simplify manufacturing and slash prices. His transfer additionally comes weeks after Volvo veteran Javier Varela joined Rivian as its operations chief.
“We have had completely different leaders as we strategy completely different ranges of scaling our enterprise,” a Rivian spokesperson mentioned, confirming Fallon’s exit. “We’re positioning the group construction for the long run.”
Fallon joins Stellantis “as we enter this crucial stage of our transformation … with this yr marking the beginning of our electrical car offensive,” Carlos Zarlenga, its chief working officer for North America, mentioned.
The American-French-Italian automaker goals to roll-out 25 EV fashions within the U.S. by 2030. The corporate plans to quickly launch a Jeep EV mannequin within the U.S. costing lower than $25,000, its CEO mentioned this yr.
(Reporting by Abhirup Roy in San Francisco; Extra reporting by Nora Eckert; Modifying by Lincoln Feast.)
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