Lucid Layoff

[HariK]

Obviously, some departments will be cut more than others. But it seems like no area of the company will not be impacted.

I hope that service and delivery will not get impacted.

 

[Steveinarizona]

Obviously, some departments will be cut more than others. But it seems like no area of the company will not be impacted.

I have never been a fan of blanket cuts vs. targeted cuts. The surest way for Lucid as a luxury car manufacturer to fail would be to develop a reputation for inadequate service. Read through this forum and so much of the positive feedback is related to good service and much of the negative is related to bad service (kept car too long; lack of communications; waiting in the road for a callback; etc. I would hate to see Lucid make any cutbacks on service.

 

[xponents]

I would cut the entire Saphire group and focus on getting Gravity out. JMHO.

Well, the sapphire folks are the most talented engineers in the company, i'd bet.

 

[idiot900]

I hope that service and delivery will not get impacted.

I just spoke to my DA, following up about registration of my car. (Apparently not done because my lender is not registered with my state...so they'll FedEx me the relevant documents so I can have it done at a local tag agency, and refund whatever they charged me for them to do it).

DA said that his group was not impacted as they need to deliver cars.

 

[joec]

I have never been a fan of blanket cuts vs. targeted cuts. The surest way for Lucid as a luxury car manufacturer to fail would be to develop a reputation for inadequate service. Read through this forum and so much of the positive feedback is related to good service and much of the negative is related to bad service (kept car too long; lack of communications; waiting in the road for a callback; etc. I would hate to see Lucid make any cutbacks on service.

Where did he say "blanket cuts"? I think this will be very strategic.

Any company in this early of a stage has inefficiencies. On the one hand, from our perspective, we look at service and say "Oh man, they need to expand, not cut." But what do we know? For all we know, they could be getting twice as much done if they made a few adjustments to the flow of how service is conducted.

From what I can tell in my limited experience with service, the people are all amazing. But the process seems fairly flawed. So my car ends up sitting for two weeks with a minor issue, waiting for other cars to be completed. That costs me frustration, and it costs Lucid rental fees for two weeks, when the actual work could probably have been done in a day or two. Somewhere in the communication process between the technicians and the scheduler, wires got crossed, resulting in lost time and money.

I'm certain there are many little examples like this where you could do a lot better by changing the process.

When you figure out where you are inefficient, sometimes that means entire roles no longer need to exist. Or at least, you can get by without them and still do a better job.

Without more intimate knowledge of how these departments were structured in the first place, it's impossible to tell. I'd have a hard time believing they are just picking folks at random to lay off, though. (That's something Google might do.)

 

[Adnillien]

I have worked at places that layoff 5-8% of their workers every year. I am not saying that it is a good way to run a business. When growing like Lucid has, not every hire is going to be great hire. The employees that I have worked with have been great but there are stories on this forum of not so great, SAs, DAs and service. It is not a bad thing to get rid of the people that are not living up to the Lucid standards. That said, 18% is a very large number of people so this is a lot more than just trimming the poor performers but also trimming some very good people. I expect these cuts to be strategic and not blanket cuts.

 

[idiot900]

I have worked at places that layoff 5-8% of their workers every year. I am not saying that it is a good way to run a business. When growing like Lucid has, not every hire is going to be great hire. The employees that I have worked with have been great but there are stories on this forum of not so great, SAs, DAs and service. It is not a bad thing to get rid of the people that are not living up to the Lucid standards. That said, 18% is a very large number of people so this is a lot more than just trimming the poor performers but also trimming some very good people. I expect these cuts to be strategic and not blanket cuts.

My DA suggested cuts coming from the factory among other places. Makes sense as ramping up production is no longer their primary problem.

Soon they'll need to be making knockdown kits for their Saudi facility to assemble.

 

[NoseyReporter]

My DA suggested cuts coming from the factory among other places. Makes sense as ramping up production is no longer their primary problem.

Soon they'll need to be making knockdown kits for their Saudi facility to assemble.

This and I bet there will be a massive slow down in the build out of the plant. Just get what is necessary for Gravity, and hold off on adding crazy capacity. Those dollars are better saved than spent.

 

[Ned]

Nope, link?

https://www.lucidmotors.com/media-room/message-from-ceo-peter-rawlinson?fbclid=IwAR3v8fSVgaFgfURF4NNm9KPdOHnNGgGFaTnZXOfvK5ZJVHUjHQ0VHEiJPnk&mibextid=SDPelY

 

[EZEVDriver]

So, as I mentioned earlier, my wife and I signed the purchase agreement and then, a few hours afterwards, saw the news of deep layoffs. Our delivery is on Friday. We have the original pricing + the $7500 for the glass canopy Tourinng, + the $7500 tax credit for the mid-August 2021, so the overall pricing is reasonable, very close to what we paid for our Model X six years ago with EAP, but no lidar, panel gaps, etc…
However - there’s always a however - I feel like the DreamDrive Pro option we selected has lost significant value and that we would have been better off with the 90-day trial. Is there any wiggle room with Lucid to lower any buyer’s remorse after the purchase agreement has been signed.

 

[Adnillien]

So, as I mentioned earlier, my wife and I signed the purchase agreement and then, a few hours afterwards, saw the news of deep layoffs. Our delivery is on Friday. We have the original pricing + the $7500 for the glass canopy Tourinng, + the $7500 tax credit for the mid-August 2021, so the overall pricing is reasonable, very close to what we paid for our Model X six years ago with EAP, but no lidar, panel gaps, etc…
However - there’s always a however - I feel like the DreamDrive Pro option we selected has lost significant value and that we would have been better off with the 90-day trial. Is there any wiggle room with Lucid to lower any buyer’s remorse after the purchase agreement has been signed.

I suspect the answer will be no but it never hurts to politely ask, especially in the current market conditions.

 

[idiot900]

However - there’s always a however - I feel like the DreamDrive Pro option we selected has lost significant value and that we would have been better off with the 90-day trial. Is there any wiggle room with Lucid to lower any buyer’s remorse after the purchase agreement has been signed.

I missed the $7500 discount by just a few days - but got the IRS credit - so I consider that you got DDP for $2500

Nevertheless good luck with that, haven’t heard anything about Lucid allowing refunds on options after you’ve paid. After all you can’t return the car…

 

[HariK]

Bummer. It seems that both the local techs in Denver were laid off and techs are flying from Seattle to service

 

[idiot900]

That's awful. Our local tech Andy in southeastern PA is fantastic and I hope he stays.

 

[steveairgt]

The layoffs itself doesn't indicate a slowing of DreamDrive Pro development or release. I really wouldn'd read anything into that.

 

[MoniputerLM]

Well, the sapphire folks are the most talented engineers in the company, i'd bet.

Great, put them to work on the Gravity! The Sapphire is a distraction and will not help Lucid become profitable.

 

[HariK]

Great, put them to work on the Gravity! The Sapphire is a distraction and will not help Lucid become profitable.

Agreed. How many units of sapphire will be sold vs gravity?

 

[thecodingart]

Great, put them to work on the Gravity! The Sapphire is a distraction and will not help Lucid become profitable.

Honestly, they are/were working on a cheaper car than the Pure (something I confirmed when I was interviewing with them for software stuff).

They need to get a cheaper car out that breaks even or can lead into profit. The gravity is unlikely to do that for them unless there’s truly high demand for the gravity.

 

[Bobby]

As this thread moves forward, I would like everybody to remember this portion of the guidelines:

"...while it is highly encouraged to post recommendations on ways to improve the vehicles, please refrain from telling Lucid what they should do or how they should run their business; “armchair CEO” comments are widespread on the internet and nearly always missing nuance. Unless you have run a large auto manufacturer, it is very easy to lose the forest for the trees, and there are likely many challenges one is not aware of unless actually in the role. It is easy to forget there are thousands of real people working very hard to design, build, sell, and service Lucid vehicles. Please keep them in mind when you're about to write something negative."

 

[joec]

Bummer. It seems that both the local techs in Denver were laid off and techs are flying from Seattle to service

From what I was told today (My car is currently at the garage where Lucid has been doing all its Colorado service) it is true that both techs assigned here have been let go. And they are bringing in other techs in the meantime temporarily from Seattle to handle any cars currently in the queue. No word yet on what the long term plan is, but for now, these "flown in" techs will be working out of the same space as always in Englewood. That facility has not been shut down or let go.

My guess is another tech will eventually be permanently assigned here. There are enough cars in Colorado in need of service that Lucid cannot afford to not have someone here long-term. It's already inconvenient for folks who aren't necessarily in the Denver Metro area.

How long it takes to move someone here permanently is anyone's guess. In the meantime, it appears the Seattle techs will be taking turns spending some time in Colorado a week or two at a time.

Every day my car is in Englewood, it's costing Lucid money. So they have a pretty strong interest in getting cars fixed up and back into the hands of customers as soon as possible. So I'm hoping they are planning on reworking their systems to be able to turn these situations around faster.