Bay Area carmaker, down billions in value, lays off hundreds more workers

Lucid Motors, the Bay Area upstart fighting to compete in the famously difficult electric vehicle business, is laying off hundreds of workers amid its long grind toward profitability.

The luxury carmaker announced a 12% cut to its United States workforce on Friday, Vice President of Communications Nick Twork confirmed to SFGATE, which is meant to help the Newark-based company “operate with greater efficiency and deliver on our commitments to gross margin improvement and long-term growth.” TechCrunch first reported the layoff, citing an early-morning memo to staff.

Lucid didn’t provide any figures for the Bay Area impacts, but Twork’s statement said that the company’s hourly manufacturing workforce in Casa Grande, Arizona, would avoid cuts. After 1,300- and 400-worker layoffs in 2023 and 2024, respectively, the company finished 2024 with around 6,800 total employees, per a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Along with the headquarters in Newark, California, and the Arizona factory, Lucid has an office in Michigan, an office and manufacturing site in Saudi Arabia — the petrostate’s investment fund has poured billions of dollars into the company — and a smattering of service and retail sites across the U.S.

Interim CEO Marc Winterhoff’s Friday memo announcing the layoffs was published by Business Insider; the executive called the cuts a “difficult but necessary decision.” Per the outlet, he also said the layoffs wouldn’t change Lucid’s push to sell its well-reviewed Gravity SUV and Air sedan models, or its work on robotaxi tech and new midsize vehicles.

“Saying goodbye to colleagues is never easy,” Winterhoff reportedly wrote. “We are grateful for the contributions of those impacted by today’s actions, and we are providing severance, bonus, continued health benefits, and transition support to help them through this period.”

The layoff announcement comes just a few days before Lucid’s Feb. 24 financial report, where the company will reveal its 2025 margins. The company has already revealed that it built 18,378 vehicles last year, more than double the amount in 2024. Still, it reported in November that, in 2025’s first nine months, the company’s net loss topped $1.8 billion.

Lucid has a long way to go to restore the investor excitement it once attracted. Enthusiasm over electric vehicles helped push the company’s valuation north of $89 billion back in 2021, but those highs were short-lived, and since early 2023, Lucid’s stock has mainly slunk lower. As of Friday, the company was down around 96% from its peak, at a valuation near $3.1 billion.

Work at a Bay Area tech company and want to talk? Contact tech reporter Stephen Council securely at stephen.council@sfgate.com or on Signal at 628-204-5452.