Peter Rawlinson To Mass Layoffs Lucid Employees

JAKARTA - Electric car manufacturer Lucid Motors announced that it would lay off 18 percent of its workforce, or around 1,300 employees.

According to a report from Reuters on Tuesday, March 28, this was done in order to cut costs as part of the restructuring plan. Plus, last month, Lucid reported a major drop in orders and this result is far from their expectations in 2023.

The manufacturer, which focuses on producing luxury electric cars, will inform all employees directly of being affected in the next few days.

Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson said this labor reduction was carried out on every organization and level, including for the executive department.

"We are also taking further steps to manage our costs by reviewing all non-essential expenses at this time," Rawlinson said.

At the end of last year, Lucid had around 7,200 employees and budgeted employee expenses of between 24 million and 30 million US dollars or around Rp362 billion - Rp454 billion.

The company expects to complete a restructuring plan by the end of the second quarter.

Mass layoffs at US automotive manufacturers have become commonplace in recent months. The turnover of gasoline vehicle production into electric vehicles is the main reason.

Early March 2023, General Motor or GM also terminated employment (PHK) for hundreds of employees, both at the highest level and at the status. This is in the context of organizational restructuring and pursuing business efficiency.

In August last year, Ford also adopted this policy. At least 3,000 people were laid off, 1,000 of whom were contractor workers.

In fact, as a fellow electric car manufacturer, Tesla took a similar step last June. The manufacturer closed job vacancies for new employees, and cut about 10 percent of its total workers.