Lucid Motors said Monday it hired Peter Hochholdinger, Tesla Inc.'s former head of production at its Fremont, Calif., factory, as vice president of manufacturing.
The Newark, Calif., electric carmaker, which has a more than $1 billion investment from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, was founded in 2007 as Atieva by Sam Weng and Bernard Tse, a former vice president of Tesla. In April Lucid named Peter Rawlinson, former chief engineer of Tesla's Model S, as its CEO.
The company positions itself as being less of a direct competitor to Tesla than with luxury car makers such as Audi or BMW, Rawlinson had said.
Hochholdinger, a former production executive at Audi, left Tesla last week after three years with the company. At Tesla, he was tasked with improving production for Tesla's luxury Model S sedan and Model X sport utility vehicle as well as helping build a cost-effective manufacturing program for the Model 3 sedan.
He was the latest high-profile executive to leave Tesla in the past two years as the automaker struggles to ramp up production of Model 3, which is seen as crucial for its long-term profitability.
Rawlinson said Hochholdinger's experience in manufacturing would help the company launch the Lucid Air and other future models.
Tesla is expected to report its second-quarter delivery and production numbers this week.
