EV Maker Lucid Plans Widespread Layoffs In Effort To Cut Costs

Lucid, the California-primarily based totally business enterprise in the back of the posh Lucid Air electric powered sedan, will lay off masses of personnel to reduce costs, in line with Reuters. The information surfaced withinside the shape of a letter penned through Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson, who reportedly stated that the business enterprise`s employees gets information about the layoffs over maximum of the last week. The business enterprise closed out 2022 with 7,2 hundred employees and the shedding of 1,three hundred people — round 18% of the general workforce — will carry that wide variety right all the way down to someplace round 5,900, aleven though how it's going to shake out in the long run is not but clear.

As with many different groups dotting the tech and car landscapes, Lucid is decreasing its headcount to in addition lessen spending, additionally noting in a separate report that it's far choosing over its numbers to ensure it is not undertaking unnecessary "non-important spending." Bloomberg shared extra fees from Rawlinson's leaked email, which reportedly calls the layoffs "painful however necessary" in an effort to maintain the business enterprise possible into the greater remote future.

A regulatory submitting shared extra details

Beyond the letter despatched to staff, Lucid shared a few information about the approaching layoffs in a regulatory submitting, the maximum excellent of that's that it'll eat $24 million to $30 million because of its restructuring because of prices like severance pay for laid-off employees. Executives are not immune from those cutoffs nor are contractors. Assuming the whole thing is going in line with plan, the complete debacle may be wrapped up through the quit of the business enterprise's 2d quarter. 

The circulate is not sudden in mild of Lucid's February 2023 declaration that it desires to lessen its spending. The business enterprise changed into hit through a pointy drop in call for for its luxurious EV in latest months, and it entered the brand new 12 months in a vulnerable function amid the broader monetary uncertainty many face in our in large part post-pandemic days. 

The information got here only some weeks after the business enterprise's largest competitor, Tesla, introduced sharp rate cuts that made its already famous EVs even greater appealing to consumers. The car marketplace changed into hit especially tough through the deliver chain disruption that passed off in the course of the peak of the pandemic, leaving a few new automobiles benched whilst used automobile charges climbed and producers made tough compromises withinside the call of having devices out the door.