Plans Keep Changing
The auto industry is in one of those wild phases where long-term plans can flip overnight. Not long ago, automakers were on a hiring spree and cranking out cars. Now, they’re hitting the brakes and rethinking everything as the market gets shaky.
Volkswagen is eyeing thousands of job cuts, and BMW isn’t having an easy time either, with sluggish sales in China putting jobs on the line across the company.
Now Lucid is joining the club. The California EV maker just announced another big round of layoffs, hoping to cut costs and match production to what people actually want right now.
Lucid
Lucid Announces Another Round of Cuts
A recent filing says Lucid is slashing about 18% of its US workforce – everyone from full-timers to contractors and factory workers gets hit, Bloomberg reports. It’ll cost the company around $32 million to make these cuts, but they’re betting on saving $158 million a year once the dust settles.
Lucid says these layoffs are all about trimming the fat and getting production in line with what buyers actually want. They’re also scrapping the second shift at their Arizona plant and ditching the chief operating officer role. Marc Winterhoff, who wore both the CEO and COO hats for a while, is out too.
This news comes after a year of headaches for Lucid – think rollercoaster EV demand, production snags, supply chain messes, and costs that just keep climbing. The new CEO, Silvio Napoli, has even hit pause on the company’s full-year production targets while he takes a hard look at how things are running.
Lucid
This Isn’t Lucid’s First Workforce Reduction
This isn’t the first time Lucid has trimmed its team. Earlier this year, the company cut 12% of its salaried staff worldwide, all in the name of efficiency and chasing that elusive profit. Back then, Lucid blamed shifting market winds and the need to make the most of what they’ve got, even as they kept working on new cars.
Lucid had about 9,000 employees at the end of 2025. With both rounds of layoffs, that’s around 2,500 jobs gone in just one year – making 2026 a record-breaker for shakeups at the company.
Even after all these cuts, Lucid insists its big-picture plans are still on track. It’s still building the Air sedan and Gravity SUV, working on the next wave of midsize EVs, and eyeing future tech like software, self-driving, and maybe even robotaxis. It’s also working on a new, more wallet-friendly midsize EV lineup. The star of the show is a crossover called the Cosmos, aiming to take on the Tesla Model Y and possibly starting at about $50,000.
Gemini/Autoblog
