Dive Brief:
- Luxury electric vehicle maker Lucid Motors is laying off 18% of its U.S.-based hourly and salaried workforce to adapt to declining market conditions, the automaker confirmed to WardsAuto.
- The company also confirmed the departure of Chief Operating Officer Marc Winterhoff, effective immediately, after the COO role at Lucid was eliminated.
- “These are difficult decisions taken to align production with demand, reduce inventory, and adapt to declining market conditions,” a Lucid spokesperson said in an emailed statement to WardsAuto. “They are part of a broader effort to simplify the company, sharpen execution, and position Lucid to become more competitive over time.”
Dive Insight:
Lucid is assisting with providing severance, benefits, and support to the impacted employees, the spokesperson said. The layoffs follow a 12% reduction of the company’s workforce announced in February following the launch of the Gravity SUV, its second model.
In the U.S., Lucid builds vehicles at its EV factory in Casa Grande, Arizona. The company plans to lay off 705 workers at the plant, according to a warn notice. Lucid said it has already eliminated a second shift at the Arizona plant, dubbed “AMP-1,” according to an SEC filing.
Lucid will also permanently lay off 136 employees at its Newark, California headquarters on Aug. 21, according to a separate warn notice filed with the state.
Lucid estimates it will incur charges of approximately $32 million related to severance, employee benefits and employee transition as a result of the layoffs, according to its SEC filing. The company plans to complete all of the layoffs by the end of the third quarter.
Like other automakers, Lucid has faced declining EV sales as demand cools across the industry. The company reported an operating loss of roughly $3 billion in 2025. In its February earnings report, Lucid said it had $4.6 billion in liquidity to fund its operations through the first half of 2027. The company delivered 3,093 EVs in the first quarter of this year and has yet to turn a profit.
Former COO Marc Winterhoff served as Lucid’s interim CEO from February 2025 until April, when the EV maker tapped Silvio Napoli, former chairman and CEO of Swiss multinational company Schindler Group, to lead the company as its new CEO.
Winterhoff was appointed as interim CEO following the resignation of former CEO and CTO Peter Rawlinson in February 2025. Rawlinson previously worked for Tesla and was chief engineer for the Tesla Model S before departing the company in 2012.
Lucid has now turned to its robotaxi partnership with Uber Technologies to boost revenue as it works to achieve positive free cash flow and profitability in a difficult market.
In September 2025, Lucid closed on a $300 million investment from Uber to add up to 20,000 Gravity SUVs to serve as robotaxis on Uber’s ride-hailing platform over the next six years in dozens of global markets. Lucid revealed a prototype robotaxi in January at CES, as well as a two-seater Lunar robotaxi concept in March at the company’s Investor Day 2026 event.
Lucid announced in April that its partnership with Uber was being expanded, with the ride-hailing company committing to purchase a least 35,000 EVs from Lucid, including a forthcoming midsize model. The deal included a fresh $200 million investment in Lucid, bringing Uber’s investment total to $500 million.
Lucid also builds EVs at a second EV factory in Saudi Arabia. The Arab nation’s Public Investment Fund, one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, is a major backer of Lucid.
Saudi Arabia’s PIF fund and its wholly owned subsidiary Ayar Third Investment Co., have cumulatively invested over $9 billion in Lucid and own about 60% of the automaker’s shares, according to a November 2025 filing with the SEC. In April, Lucid announced that Ayar agreed to purchase $550 million of Lucid’s convertible stock.
