Important head of production Hochholdinger leaves Lucid

Peter Hochholdinger

Lucid’s former head of production was a longtime Tesla executive.

(Photo: © 2020 Bloomberg Finance LP)

Dusseldorf Peter Hochholdinger rescued Elon Musk from “production hell”. The German should also do the same with Tesla competitor Lucid, where he built electric car production in the new factory in Arizona.

Not anymore. Hochholdinger is leaving the US company, as the Handelsblatt learned from industry circles. Several high-ranking production experts left the company with him. That’s how David Peel, director of “advanced manufacturing processes,” is going to competitor and start-up Nikola, according to his Linkedin page. Peele joined Lucid in 2020, directed by Hochholdinger.

According to the American edition of “Business Insider”, Lucid’s program manager Ralph Jakobs is also said to have left the company. Jakobs’ profile picture was removed from Lucid’s website a few weeks ago. He worked at Volkswagen for almost a quarter of a century, most recently as head of research at the joint venture between VW and Audi in China.

The departures hit Lucid at a difficult time. Starting up vehicle production is complex and requires a lot of experience. The Californian company has already had to reduce its production targets twice this year and is only building a maximum of 7,000 vehicles this year. The share price has fallen by more than half since the beginning of the year.

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There are no official statements about the departures and their reasons. People who are close to Hochholdinger do not see him as responsible for the production problems. Lucid would have made mistakes in the logistics and procurement of battery cells. A few days ago, CEO Peter Rawlinson spoke of “unplanned production stoppages” due to logistics problems.

Hochholdinger had a lot of freedom with Lucid for a long time. But recently Rawlinson put him in charge of a new boss: Steven David, head of operations. The experienced car manager was previously responsible for production in various positions at Stellantis and Fiat Chrysler. David has his Arizona office at the factory, Rawlinson pointed out.

>> Read here: False start for the Tesla hunters Xpeng and Lucid

After a long career at Audi, Hochholdinger was head of production at Tesla from 2016 and was responsible for the rise to mass production with the Model 3. Musk called the phase “production hell”, a term that Hochholdinger classified as “exaggerated” in an interview with the Handelsblatt in 2021 .

It was he who mastered the start of Model 3 production and helped Tesla on the road to success. At Lucid, he built the plant in Arizona “at record speed”, as he said a year ago – faster than Tesla built his factory in Grünheide.

Lucid follows a similar strategy as Tesla

Lucid follows Tesla in many ways in its market strategy. In addition to Hochholdinger, it brought in managers from its competitors, such as head of development Eric Bach or head of supply chain Peter Hasenkamp. Similar to Tesla, it relies on producing many components itself and retaining control over large parts of vehicle production.

That’s in contrast to other startups like Fisker, which outsource a lot to suppliers. Like Tesla, Lucied is also launching a very expensive vehicle with the Roadster sports car that is only available in a limited edition: the Air Dream Edition. New vehicles should come onto the market every quarter, which are primarily cheaper versions of the Lucid Air.

In an interview with the Handelsblatt a year ago, Hochholdinger compared ramping up production to a marathon: “You don’t run the first five kilometers like a madman,” said the Upper Bavarian. “You win the race in the last third, that’s when the litter separates from the wheat.”

More: Lucid Motors – How Former Tesla Executives Attack Elon Musk

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