Last week electric vehicle (EV) startup Lucid Motors said it was laying off about 18% of its workforce, affecting executives and employees at all levels. Those layoffs have now started, and affected employees are taking to social media to announce their departures.
One of those executives affected was Lucid’s head of customer experience, Len Devanna. Devanna announced his exit on Twitter, stating that during his time with the company, they had “shattered every record for efficiency, performance, and innovation.”
(1/5) A quick note to share that I am no longer with the incredible @LucidMotors team. During my two plus years with the company, I’ve had the pleasure of working with one of the most passionate and dedicated groups of people on the planet.
— Len Devanna (@LenDevanna) April 4, 2023
Other former employees took to LinkedIn to announce they are no longer with the company. The laid-off staff held different job roles such as assembly crew, software and manufacturing engineers, quality inspectors, recruiters, and retail workers, according to a report by Automotive News.
Lucid reported a net loss of $473 million in the fourth quarter on revenue of $258 million. The automaker has not yet announced its first-quarter production or delivery numbers, but Cox Automotive forecasted sales of 1,344 Air sedans in the January-March period.
While Lucid hasn’t warned of falling demand, their order backlog has been declining faster than they have been delivering vehicles, indicating customers are not following through with their reservations and cancelling their orders. Lucid’s order backlog dropped to 28,000 in February from 34,000 late last year, but with only 1,932 deliveries in Q4, that equates to a net loss of more than 4,000 reservations in about four and a half months.
