Former chief engineer at Lucid Motors sues for wrongful termination and discrimination

Eric Bach, a former chief engineer for Lucid Motors, has sued the company for wrongful termination, discrimination and retaliation, and claims that one of the automaker’s top human resources executives referred to him as a “German Nazi.”

The federal lawsuit, filed Monday in the Northern District of California, alleges that Bach was stripped of his responsibilities overseeing the powertrain division in early 2025 as a result of a human resources investigation into the company’s workplace culture. Bach claims he was targeted because of his German heritage.

Bach first learned of the offensive comment in mid-2025, months after he began investigating the workplace culture and after losing some responsibilities at the company, according to the complaint. He encouraged his co-worker to report the incident.

TechCrunch has reached out to Lucid and will update the article if the company comments on the lawsuit.

Bach claims that Lucid Motors “confirmed” that the HR executive made the statement. Bach registered an internal complaint against another Lucid vice president for similar racist behavior.

Lucid Motors allegedly retaliated by trying to force him to resign in October 2025. Lucid fired Bach on November 5, 2025, according to the lawsuit. The Lucid Motors press release that day only said he had “left.”

The lawsuit comes during a difficult moment for Lucid Motors. The company is burning through cash as it ramps up production of its second vehicle, the Gravity SUV. It is developing affordable mass-market vehicles on a midsize platform that is scheduled to debut sometime in late 2026.

Lucid has also been shuffling between executives. The company’s VP of engineering left the same day Bach claimed he was fired, as TechCrunch previously reported. Previous CEO and CTO Peter Rawlinson resigned suddenly in February, and the company has yet to appoint a permanent replacement. Lucid’s head of investor relations, senior vice president of operations, managing director of Europe, and vice presidents of software quality and marketing all departed over the past year as well.

Bach alleges in the complaint that he was on the rise before the internal investigation. An engineer who spent a decade at the company, Bach says he oversaw “all hardware engineering” and “product management and corporate planning.”

Bach stated that Lucid Chairman Turki Al-Nuwaisir “praised Bach’s loyalty and dedication to the company and expressed his desire to continue working with Bach.” Board member Andrew Liveris also allegedly “indicated that Bach would become CTO (the position was ‘up there for you to lose’) and that Bach could one day become CEO,” according to the complaint.

An investigation into the workplace culture began in late 2024, which Bach claimed was “tainted by HR’s racist beliefs,” “initially resulted in Bach losing significant responsibility.” Human Resources told Bach at the time that he contributed to a poor culture at the company, according to the complaint. In addition to losing oversight of the powertrain team, Bach claims he was excluded from board meetings.