New Lucid Motors CEO cuts 18% of staff to ‘simplify the company’

Lucid Motors is laying off 18% of its workforce, or about 1,500 employees, just four months after the electric car maker laid off 12% of its employees. The company said on Monday that it had “cancelled the second shift” for electric vehicle production at its plant in Casa Grande, Arizona.

The cuts are part of an attempt by Lucid’s new CEO, Silvio Napoli, “to simplify the company, improve execution, and position Lucid to become more competitive over time,” the company said in a statement. The layoffs come as the electric vehicle market slows in the United States, with major automakers pulling electric models from their own product plans.

Mark Winterhoff, who served as interim CEO for more than a year until Napoli took over, has also left the company. Winterhoff, Napoli and the company had previously said Winterhoff would remain as chief operating officer after stepping down as interim CEO. In a regulatory filing, Lucid Motors said it had eliminated the COO position entirely.

This round of discounts comes as Lucid Motors works to launch its first mass-market vehicle later this year, the Lucid Cosmos SUV. The low-cost electric vehicle should start at less than $50,000 and put Lucid Motors on the path to profitability.

Lucid Motors is also trying to become a major player in the autonomous vehicle space, by partnering with Uber and Nuro on a luxury robotaxi service set to launch later this year in San Francisco. The company declined to comment on whether any of its programs have been discontinued.

The Saudi Arabia-owned, publicly listed company has seen more than a dozen senior executives leave the company over the past two years. Longtime CEO Peter Rawlinson resigned suddenly in February 2025; Chief engineer Eric Bach was let go in late 2025, and filed a wrongful termination suit soon after (although that suit remains pending arbitration); Imad Dalla, another long-time employee, resigned earlier this month, just a few months after being promoted to a higher position.

The latest cuts include full-time employees, contractors and hourly production workers. The company reported that it had 9,000 employees globally at the end of 2025, before the 12% reduction in February.

Lucid said the layoffs will help it align “production plans with expected demand” and achieve annual savings of about $158 million. The company expects the restructuring process to be completed by the third quarter of this year.

Lucid will pay approximately $32 million in severance pay. Winterhoff, the outgoing CEO, will receive severance pay, “certain security support,” and will be able to keep his company vehicle, according to the regulatory filing.