Lucid Motors, the California electric vehicle maker backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, laid off roughly 800 salaried employees on Friday
Lucid Motors, the California electric vehicle maker backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, laid off roughly 800 salaried employees on Friday, representing about 12% of its global workforce, as the company pushes to reach profitability while preparing for the most consequential product year in its history.
The cuts affected white collar staff across engineering, corporate, and administrative functions. Workers on the factory floor in Casa Grande, Arizona, where Lucid builds its Air sedan and Gravity SUV, were not affected. Interim chief executive Marc Winterhoff told employees in an internal memo that the decision was about sharpening how the company operates. "Saying goodbye to colleagues is never easy," he wrote, adding that Lucid would provide severance, continued health benefits, and transition support to everyone affected.
The move is a deliberate step toward financial discipline at a company that has spent heavily to build its technology, its manufacturing base, and its global footprint. Lucid's full year financial results for 2025 are due next week, and the company has an Investor Day scheduled for March 12, where leadership is expected to lay out in detail how it plans to close the gap between its spending and its revenue.
PIF first invested in Lucid in 2019 and has since committed more than eight billion dollars to the company, making it one of the fund's most significant and long term technology bets. Today PIF holds approximately 58% of Lucid's shares. That relationship has been central to Lucid's ability to scale, and it extends well beyond capital. Saudi Arabia is now home to Lucid's second manufacturing plant, located in King Abdullah Economic City on the Red Sea coast north of Jeddah. The facility, which began as a semi knocked down assembly operation, has been fully rebuilt as a complete production site in partnership with Rockwell Automation. When it reaches full capacity, the plant is projected to produce up to 150,000 vehicles per year by 2029, making it a significant manufacturing hub serving Saudi Arabia, Europe, and markets across Asia.
The King Abdullah Economic City plant is the first automobile factory ever built in Saudi Arabia, and it sits at the heart of the Kingdom's broader industrial ambitions under Vision 2030. Lucid's presence there has also helped catalyze wider EV infrastructure investment in the region. EVIQ, a joint venture between Lucid and Saudi Electricity Company, is working to install 5,000 charging stations across the Kingdom, building out the physical network that will support EV adoption at scale.
On the product side, Lucid enters 2026 with real momentum. The company doubled its vehicle output last year after working through early production challenges with the Gravity SUV. It is now preparing to launch a midsize electric vehicle priced at around $48,000 to $50,000, its first model designed to reach mainstream buyers rather than the luxury segment alone. That car, expected later this year, is widely seen inside and outside the company as the vehicle that will determine whether Lucid can achieve the volume it needs to become financially self-sustaining.
Lucid is also moving into the robotaxi space. It has announced a partnership with Uber and autonomous vehicle company Nuro to launch a robotaxi service in the San Francisco Bay Area. Uber has committed $300 million to the venture and agreed to deploy at least 20,000 Gravity SUVs over six years, giving Lucid a meaningful and predictable commercial demand signal as it ramps production.
Winterhoff was clear in his memo that Friday's cuts do not change where the company is headed. "Our core priorities remain unchanged," he wrote, pointing to the midsize platform launch, robotaxi expansion, continued software development, and growth in sales of both the Air and Gravity across existing and new markets. The restructuring is meant to make the organisation leaner so it can execute those priorities more effectively.
For Lucid, 2026 is the year the pieces either come together or they do not. The affordable EV launches, the Saudi factory ramp, the Uber robotaxi rollout, and the path to profitability are all converging at once. Friday's decision to cut 800 jobs is Lucid signalling that it intends to arrive at that moment in the strongest possible shape.
