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The former chief engineer of Lucid Motors, Eric Bach, has sued the company for wrongful termination, discrimination, and retaliation, and claims one of the automaker\u2019s top HR executives referred to him as a \u201cGerman Nazi.\u201d <\/p>\n
The federal lawsuit, filed Monday in the Northern District of California, claims Bach was stripped of his responsibilities overseeing the powertrain division in early 2025 as a result of an HR investigation into the company\u2019s workplace culture. Bach claims to have been targeted because of his German heritage. <\/p>\n
Bach first learned about the disparaging comment in mid-2025 \u2014 months after the investigation into workplace culture was launched and after losing some responsibilities at the company, according to the complaint. He encouraged a co-worker to report the incident. <\/p>\n
TechCrunch has reached out to Lucid and will update the article if the company comments on the lawsuit. <\/p>\n
Bach claims Lucid Motors \u201cconfirmed\u201d the HR executive made the remark. Bach logged an internal complaint against another Lucid vice president for similarly racist behavior. <\/p>\n
He claims Lucid Motors retaliated by trying to force him to resign in October 2025. Lucid fired Bach on November 5, 2025, according to the lawsuit. Lucid Motors\u2019 press release from that day only said he had \u201cdeparted.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawsuit comes during a tricky moment for Lucid Motors. The company is burning through cash as it works to ramp up production of its second vehicle, the Gravity SUV. It is developing more affordable mass-market vehicles on a mid-sized platform slated to debut sometime in late 2026.<\/p>\n
Techcrunch event<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco<\/span> Lucid has also been churning through executives. The company\u2019s VP of engineering left on the same day Bach claims to have been fired, as TechCrunch previously reported. Former CEO and CTO Peter Rawlinson suddenly resigned in February, and the company has still not named a permanent replacement. Lucid\u2019s head of investor relations, Senior Vice President of Operations, Managing Director for Europe, and the Vice Presidents of Software Quality and Marketing all left within the last year, too.<\/p>\n Bach, in the complaint, claims to have been ascendant before the internal investigation. An engineer who spent a decade with the company, Bach says he oversaw \u201call hardware engineering,\u201d \u201cproduct management and corporate planning.\u201d <\/p>\n Bach states that Lucid\u2019s chairman Turqi Alnowaiser \u201cpraised Bach\u2019s loyalty and dedication to the Company and expressed a desire to continue working with Bach.\u201d He also claims board member Andrew Liveris \u201csignaled that Bach would become Chief Technology Officer (the position \u201cis yours to lose\u201d) and that Bach could one day become Chief Executive Officer,\u201d according to the complaint.<\/p>\n The workplace culture investigation launched in late 2024, which Bach claims was \u201ctainted by HR\u2019s racist beliefs,\u201d \u201cinitially resulted in Bach losing significant responsibilities.\u201d The HR department told Bach at the time that he contributed to a poor culture at the company, according to the complaint. In addition to losing oversight of the powertrain team, Bach claims to have been excluded from board meetings.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n