Lucid to Lay Off Nearly a Fifth of Its Workforce
The EV startup has been struggling to build cars, and now it has announced a huge restructuring.
Electric automaker Lucid has announced plans to cut roughly 18% of its workforce. The layoffs amount to around 1,300 employees and come alongside news of a poor production forecast for 2022 as well as an alleged "major drop" in orders.
Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson said all "non-critical spending" will be also reviewed, according to Reuters, and that the layoffs do not just affect low-level employees. The cuts are claimed to come from "nearly every organization and level," from executives to line workers.
Many automakers have announced staffing cuts in the near term citing recession fears. Ford and Rivian have detailed layoffs, and General Motors is offering widespread buyouts to employees as well. They follow the tech industry's own mass layoffs as giants like Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft endure far-reaching restructurings.
Lucid is seeing more competition from rapidly electrifying legacy automakers as well as from the biggest player in the EV game, Tesla. Elon Musk's manufacturing juggernaut has been slashing prices to put pressure on its competition, but not every car company can respond in kind. Lucid, which has long struggled with production issues, has not announced any discounts on its Air sedan, which is currently the only vehicle it makes.
Whether this is just a bump in the road for the young company or a sign of unresolvable distress has yet to be seen. An 18% cut is a bad sign in any case, though.
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