Rivian welcomes Stellantis veteran as its new VP of manufacturing engineering
Rivian Chief Operations Officer Javier Varela has announced one of the company’s latest additions to its management. As per Varela, Stellantis veteran Krishna Bandaru has joined Rivian to become the electric truck maker’s Vice President of Manufacturing Engineering.
Varela’s announcement about Rivian’s new executive was posted on LinkedIn. As per the Rivian COO, Bandaru is coming to Rivian with over two decades worth of experience in manufacturing. Such experience will likely be invaluable for Rivian considering the challenges that the company will be facing when it takes on the ramp of the Rivian R2 in 2026.
Following is Varela’s LinkedIn post.
“We are thrilled to welcome Krishna Bandaru to the Rivian team as VP of Manufacturing Engineering. With more than 25 years of experience in manufacturing at Stellantis, Krishna will lead the team to improve our productivity, increase our manufacturing efficiency, deliver high-quality products, while optimizing Capex and reducing launch time.
“Krishna has a passion for scaling up manufacturing operations with a focus on innovative manufacturing processes, which is crucial as we expand our operations in Normal to bring R2 to market in 2026,” the Rivian COO wrote in his post.
Rivian is actively preparing for the initial production of the R2, an all-electric crossover that is expected to become the company’s first mass market vehicle. During the Q3 2024 earnings call, Rivian CFO Claire McDonough noted that Rivian would be shutting down its Normal, Il plant sometime in the second half of 2025 to prepare for the initial production of the R2.
“We will still have a shutdown as part of our production cadence in 2025. That will be in the second half of the year of just over a month of shutdown there to do a lot of work on many of the shared shops, and specifically our paint shop, to make sure that we’re ready for the R2’s start of production,” she said.
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