Luxury Bay Area carmaker announces massive layoffs for the 2nd time this year

A Bay Area luxury carmaker will deal another massive blow to its workforce this year as it continues to struggle with a path to profitability.

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Lucid Group, a Newark-headquartered company known for its Air sedan electric vehicle line, announced in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Monday that it plans to lay off 18% of its workforce, including employees, contractors and hourly factory workers. The cuts come only four months after the company slashed 319 Bay Area employees, or 12% of its workforce, and follow cuts in 2023 and 2024, of 1,300 and 400 employees, respectively. 

Though February’s cuts largely hit hardware and software engineers and spared hourly factory workers, now the company plans on slashing an entire production shift at its Arizona manufacturing facility. The company has also parted ways with Chief Operating Officer Marc Winterhoff, effectively eliminating that C-suite position entirely. 

Monday’s filing notes that Winterhoff qualifies for a severance package and will also get to keep his company car.

“These are difficult decisions taken to align production with demand, reduce inventory, and adapt to declining market conditions,” Lucid spokesperson Jesse Caputo said in a statement to SFGATE. “They are part of a broader effort to simplify the company, sharpen execution, and position Lucid to become more competitive over time.”

It’s unclear how many positions will be affected in the Bay Area. The company has not filed a WARN with the California Employment Development Department, a document required by state law in the event of large layoffs that details which positions will be affected and where they’re located. 

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Caputo did not address SFGATE’s questions about specific job cuts, though he did say the company plans to file a WARN on Monday afternoon. According to the SEC filing, the company expects to save $158 million with this round of layoffs, at a cost of $32 million in employee severance and benefits, and complete the cuts by the end of the third fiscal quarter.

Despite billions in investment from the Saudi Arabian government, the company has reported an annual net loss since it filed with the SEC in 2020. It closed out 2025 at a net loss of $2.7 billion and an accumulated deficit of $15.6 billion, according to its annual report filed with the SEC in February. The company has attributed its struggles to several factors, including competition with other EV companies, difficulty with popularizing its brand and rising operational costs.

Work at Lucid or another Bay Area tech company and want to talk? Contact tech reporter Matthew Brown securely at [email protected] or on Signal at matthewbrownsfgate.11.