UPDATE: July 14, 2026
Lucid Responds To Bankruptcy Rumors
CarBuzz reached out to Lucid amid plunging stock prices and bankruptcy rumors since our original July 7 report. A company spokesperson provided a statement addressing “completely false” reports from other sources.
It’s been quite a month for Lucid Motors as the company tries to set a path to survival. A new CEO, Silvio Napoli, came from the Schindler Group to take the reins on June 1 from interim CEO Marc Winterhoff, who resumed his role as chief operating officer – for a mere three weeks. Winterhoff then departed on June 22 when the company eliminated the COO position, as well as 18% of Lucid’s workforce totaling more than 1,400 jobs.
First Lucid Gravity ProductionLucid
That’s after Lucid cut about 1,000 jobs in February, about 12% of its staff. The company ended 2025 with about 9,000 employees. But that’s not all. Former Lucid Chief Financial Officer Taoufiq Boussaid told investors in February that cuts totaling approximately $500 million would come over the next three years, in an attempt to break even and stem net losses that totaled $3.8 billion (diluted) for 2025, after shedding $3 billion the prior year. And yes, that’s former CFO. Boussaid just departed the company last week, the latest executive to do so.
Now, new CEO Napoli has assembled his top management team, mostly from outside Lucid: Chief Financial Officer Alexander De Bock (from supplier TI Automotive), Chief Technology Officer Raja Ramana Macha (from supplier Eaton), Chief Customer Officer Billy Hayes (from Nissan and Stellantis), and Chief Transformation Officer Hugo Martinho, who came from the Schindler Group with CEO Napoli. But there’s another aspect to all this that paints a more ominous future for the brand.
What Will AlixPartners Do For Lucid?
Lucid Air at Tesla Supercharger stationLucid
A source close to Lucid tells CarBuzz that the automaker has retained the services of AlixPartners, the company that advised General Motors, Kmart, and Enron through highly visible bankruptcy proceedings for those brands. True, AlixPartners does more than corporate turnaround and restructuring, but these activities are core to the consulting company.
Related
Lucid Is Flirting With Disaster If It Can’t Sell More Cars Soon
Lucid is slashing staff and dropping a production shift just as it prepares its most critical vehicle launch yet.
The entire Lucid management team is under extreme pressure, but Christian Appel, who stayed with the company and was promoted to vice president of Program Management, might be feeling it most acutely. Lucid told investors in February that the first Cosmos battery-electric crossover from an all-new midsize platform would launch this year from a plant being renovated in Saudi Arabia, followed by the Earth crossover a year later. Is that even possible with so many staff cuts? Before he was shown the door, Winterhoff said the priority was to first meet customer demand for the midsize EVs in North America.
Another source close to the company tells CarBuzz that, despite low morale due to the downsizing, Napoli seems to have a solid vision for the future and a grasp of the immediate issues needing to be addressed. But whether the company can adapt fast enough before the money runs out is a concern.
Lucid Responds To Bankruptcy Rumors
Lucid Cosmos Patent RenderingsCarBuzz/Valnet – Generated with AI assistance
Neither AlixPartners nor Lucid provided a comment to CarBuzz when we broke this story on July 7. Since then, bankruptcy rumors have circulated, not to mention a sharp decline in Lucid stock as of July 14. CarBuzz reached out to Lucid again and received an official statement denying all bankruptcy claims.
“The rumors are completely false. The company has sufficient liquidity to carry its operations well into next year, as recently published in its last quarterly filings, and it has not formed any special Board committee to explore the scenarios reported today. Our focus is on improving execution, strengthening operations, and positioning Lucid to realize the full potential of its technology, products, and innovation. AlixPartners is assisting us in that and nothing else and has not recommended bankruptcy to management or the Board. We undertake no duty to update our comments on this matter.”
Based in Newark, California, Lucid’s first plant is in Casa Grande, Arizona, manufacturing the Air and Gravity EVs, but the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (via its affiliate, Ayar Third Investment Company) owns about 60% of the automaker. The Saudi government has committed to buy 50,000 midsize EVs to be produced at the Saudi plant, based on a contract with an option for another 50,000 units.
Lucid Has A Major Cash Flow Problem
But Lucid is consistently burning more cash than it’s taking in. As of a few months ago, the automaker had a line of credit of about $2 billion, as well as about $700 million in cash or cash equivalents at the end of the first quarter. Lucid will report its financial results on August 4 for the first half of 2026, so there should be some clarity at that point. Based on massive losses on each Air and Gravity sold, a source close to Lucid doubts the company can survive past next summer.
2026 Lucid Gravity Touring LAAS Live ImageCarBuzz / Valnet
Within Lucid as of this week, many employees have heard very little about the launch of the midsize EV, which was supposed to happen this year and achieve much higher sales volumes for the automaker. “The official line is, yes, everything’s going to happen as originally outlined,” our source says. But how are parts supposed to be shipped through the Straits of Hormuz while the US and Iran do battle?
CarBuzz Insight – Why This Matters:
Lucid management can project optimism all day long, but the numbers don’t lie: Lucid is producing more vehicles than it is selling. In the second quarter that just ended, Lucid produced 4,774 vehicles and delivered 3,953 of them. The difference in the first quarter was even larger, 5,500 vehicles versus 3,093. Going back to 2025, Lucid produced 17,840 vehicles and delivered 15,841. In February, the company said it expected to build more than 25,000 vehicles. But it’s well off-pace for that.
Every automaker executive will tell you a company is only as good as its employees, and Lucid has to muddle by with fewer of them at a time when all hands need to be on deck. The plant in Arizona just lost its second shift, and cuts were distributed throughout the company. One silver lining is that the latest round of cuts have impacted engineering and product development the least. The financial report on August 4 will shed more light.
