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

Lucid Motors is laying off 18% of its workforce, or around 1,500 employees, just four months after the EV maker cut 12% of its staff. The company said on Monday that it has also “eliminated the second shift” of EV production at its factory in Casa Grande, Arizona. The cuts are part of a bid by Lucid’s new CEO, Silvio Napoli , to “simplify the company, sharpen execution, and position Lucid to become more competitive over time,” the company said in a statement. The lay-offs come as the electric vehicle market in the United States has cooled, with major automakers pulling electric models from their own product plans. Marc Winterhoff, who served as interim CEO for more than a year until Napoli took the job, has also left the company. Winterhoff, Napoli, and the company had all previously said that Winterhoff would stay on as chief operating officer after stepping down as interim CEO. In a regulatory filing, Lucid Motors said it has eliminated the chief operating officer position entirely. This round of cuts comes as Lucid Motors works toward releasing its first mass-market vehicle later this year, the Lucid Cosmos SUV. The lower-cost EV is supposed to start at under $50,000 and put Lucid Motors on the path to profitability. Lucid Motors is also attempting to become a major player in the autonomous vehicle space, partnering up with Uber and Nuro on a luxury robotaxi service slated to launch later this year in San Francisco. …