Lucid is the EV enthusiast’s car company. The California luxury EV brand has been particularly bold in its execution, creating dramatic tri-motor powered EVs with an unrivalled driving experience.
Although it hasn’t achieved the commercial success envisioned at launch, Lucid’s vehicles are considered by industry analysts and engineers to be exceptionally advanced luxury EVs.
No ad to show here.
Despite recently adding its more affordable Gravity SUV, the engineering lead who has driven Lucid’s innovation has resigned. After twelve years, Peter Rawlinson announced that he is stepping away from his dual roles as company CEO and CTO.
From Lotus to Lucid
Rawlinson is regarded as an EV visionary. His engineering background and work experience made Rawlinson the ideal candidate when Lucid needed more technical expertise in 2013. Rawlinson studied engineering at Imperial College London, before working at that most engineering-obsessed of British car companies – Lotus.
Transition across the Atlantic, Rawlinson joined Tesla as chief engineer on the Model S, in 2009. Rawlinson was an obvious choice when Lucid founders needed an accomplished engineering lead for the luxury EV startup.
Whereas Tesla has garnered volume sales, successful global expansion, and benefited from the Elon Musk cult of personality, Lucid’s been more about product excellence and driving experience.
Amazing specs
Since its first cars were delivered to customers in late 2021, Lucid has been the legitimate EV brand without compromise. The $250 000 Air Sapphire is a choice example of everything that Rawlinson believed in. Outrageously luxurious inside, with incredible real-world performance and range numbers, even in the realm of EVs, where stats are often unbelievable.
The Air Sapphire has 920kW of peak power and will run the benchmark 0-100km/h sprint in two seconds. Crucially, it has 687km of driving range and an onboard recharging architecture that can add 320km of range, in only 15 minutes, plugging into a high-power charger.
However, for all the technical innovation and engineering excellence of Lucid’s products, balancing costs and scale to achieve profits has been challenging. And there’s little margin to increase pricing, as Lucid’s model range is already very fully priced.
Lucid challenges
Rawlinson’s background and focus on product excellence has wooed investors. Last year, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) took a $1.5bn stake in Lucid, making it the largest shareholder. These funds allowed the Gravity SUV to come to market, a Saudi production facility to develop partnerships that use Lucid’s pioneering EV powertrain technology, most notably with Aston Martin.
But the overall financial position remains challenging. The latest financials detail a $397m net loss in Q4 of 2024. It’s the paradox of brilliantly engineered products, with dedicated engineering, being exceedingly difficult to scale to profitability. Total units sold were just over 9000 and the target for this year, will be 20 000.
Rawlinson becomes strategic advisor to the chairman of Lucid, with Marc Winterhoff appointed as interim CEO. Winterhoff has an electronics and electrical engineering degree from the Technische Universität Darmstadt, and has served as Lucid Chief Operating Officer, since 2023.
