The previous chief engineer of Lucid Motors, Eric Bach, has sued the corporate for wrongful termination, discrimination, and retaliation, and claims one of many automaker’s prime HR executives referred to him as a “German Nazi.”

The federal lawsuit, filed Monday within the Northern District of California, claims Bach was stripped of his obligations overseeing the powertrain division in early 2025 because of an HR investigation into the corporate’s office tradition. Bach claims to have been focused due to his German heritage.

Bach first realized concerning the disparaging remark in mid-2025 — months after the investigation into office tradition was launched and after dropping some obligations on the firm, in keeping with the grievance. He inspired a co-worker to report the incident.

TechCrunch has reached out to Lucid and can replace the article if the corporate feedback on the lawsuit.

Bach claims Lucid Motors “confirmed” the HR govt made the comment. Bach logged an inner grievance towards one other Lucid vp for equally racist habits.

He claims Lucid Motors retaliated by making an attempt to power him to resign in October 2025. Lucid fired Bach on November 5, 2025, in keeping with the lawsuit. Lucid Motors’ press launch from that day solely stated he had “departed.”

The lawsuit comes throughout a difficult second for Lucid Motors. The corporate is burning by way of money as it really works to ramp up manufacturing of its second automobile, the Gravity SUV. It’s growing extra reasonably priced mass-market automobiles on a mid-sized platform slated to debut someday in late 2026.

Lucid has additionally been churning by way of executives. The corporate’s VP of engineering left on the identical day Bach claims to have been fired, as TechCrunch beforehand reported. Former CEO and CTO Peter Rawlinson immediately resigned in February, and the corporate has nonetheless not named a everlasting alternative. Lucid’s head of investor relations, Senior Vice President of Operations, Managing Director for Europe, and the Vice Presidents of Software program High quality and Advertising all left inside the final 12 months, too.

Bach, within the grievance, claims to have been ascendant earlier than the interior investigation. An engineer who spent a decade with the corporate, Bach says he oversaw “all {hardware} engineering,” “product administration and company planning.”

Bach states that Lucid’s chairman Turqi Alnowaiser “praised Bach’s loyalty and dedication to the Firm and expressed a want to proceed working with Bach.” He additionally claims board member Andrew Liveris “signaled that Bach would turn into Chief Know-how Officer (the place “is yours to lose”) and that Bach may someday turn into Chief Government Officer,” in keeping with the grievance.

The office tradition investigation launched in late 2024, which Bach claims was “tainted by HR’s racist beliefs,” “initially resulted in Bach dropping vital obligations.” The HR division advised Bach on the time that he contributed to a poor tradition on the firm, in keeping with the grievance. Along with dropping oversight of the powertrain group, Bach claims to have been excluded from board conferences.