Lucid Motors has announced that Eric Bach, its chief engineer, will be departing the company after serving for over ten years.
Bach, who also held the position of Senior Vice President of Product at Lucid Motors, joined the company in 2015. Prior to that, he spent three years as Director of Engineering at Tesla, working alongside Lucid’s former CEO and CTO, Peter Rawlinson. Before his time at Tesla, Bach worked at Volkswagen for more than a decade.
TechCrunch has discovered that James Hawkins, Lucid’s Vice President of Engineering, has also exited the company after a decade-long tenure. Lucid Motors did not provide a specific comment regarding his exit.
The departures of Bach and Hawkins are part of a broader organizational restructuring revealed on Wednesday. Jeri Ford, Lucid Motors’ Vice President of Quality, is also retiring. Marnie Levergood, who previously worked at Scout Motors, will take over her role.
Additionally, Emad Dlala, currently the Senior Vice President of Powertrain at Lucid Motors, will now be responsible for all “Engineering and Digital.” Dlala, who has been with Lucid since 2015, was promoted earlier this year as well.
This leadership transition occurs as Lucid approaches its ninth month without a permanent CEO following Peter Rawlinson’s abrupt resignation in February. Since then, Marc Winterhoff, the former chief operating officer, has been acting as interim CEO.
Bach and Ford’s exits add to a series of high-level departures at Lucid Motors. Over the past year, the company has also seen its head of investor relations, Senior Vice President of Operations, Managing Director for Europe, and Vice Presidents of Software Quality and Marketing leave their positions.
These organizational changes are taking place at a pivotal time for Lucid Motors. The company has just introduced its long-anticipated luxury SUV, the Gravity, which it hopes will outperform the Air sedan, a model that has faced sales challenges.
Lucid Motors is also developing a midsize vehicle expected to be priced near $50,000 by 2026, though the company has indicated it will likely need additional funding before production begins. On Wednesday, Lucid Motors shared that its majority stakeholder, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, has increased the limit of a loan agreement from $750 million to about $2 billion, ensuring liquidity through 2027.
This article has been revised to include further details about the executive departures and the updated loan agreement announced on Wednesday.
