Electric vehicle maker chops hundreds of Bay Area jobs amid red ink

NEWARK — Lucid Group has revealed its plans to slash hundreds of jobs in the Bay Area, part of a wrenching reorganization that the maker of electric vehicles hopes will help position it for “future success.”

The electric vehicle manufacturer has decided to chop more than 200 jobs at the company’s headquarters complex at 7373 Gateway Boulevard in Newark, according to an official filing sent to the state Employment Development Department.

“There are 258 employees, including remote employees, who will be affected by the Newark campus layoffs that are expected to be permanent,” Ross Boughton, a deputy general counsel for Lucid USA and Lucid Group USA, the Lucid units that are conducting the job cuts, wrote in the WARN letter to the state EDD.

The layoffs were scheduled to occur on or around July 23.

“To optimize our resources to put Lucid in the best position for future success, we are reducing our workforce,” Lucid stated in the WARN notice filed with the California labor agency.

The Lucid Group job cuts are occurring at a time when the electric vehicle maker is suffering billions of dollars in annual losses — although the company’s sales are rising and the red ink appears to be shrinking.

Over the 12 months that ended in March, Lucid Group lost $2.73 billion on revenue of $618.6 million, according to the Yahoo Finance site.

During calendar 2023, Lucid lost $2.83 billion on revenue of $595.3 million, Yahoo Finance reported.

Newark-based Lucid Group said employees who are being laid off can’t displace workers with less seniority.

“There are no applicable bumping rights,” Lucid stated in its WARN notice.

Lucid isn’t the only electric vehicle maker to reveal plans for layoffs this year.

Tesla has disclosed, through multiple rounds of job cuts, its decision to chop at least 3,600 jobs in the Bay Area alone, affecting workers in Fremont and Palo Alto.

Fisker Group has decided to lay off 45 workers in San Francisco.