Tuesday marked the end of an era for Lucid as the high-end car manufacturer announced that its CEO and CTO, Peter Rawlinson, had stepped aside as part of a “planned transition.”
Rawlinson joined Lucid back when it was known as Atieva, a company focused on building batteries and powertrains for electric vehicles, in 2013 as CTO and board member. He stayed in that role through the company rebranding as Lucid, announcing its intention to build luxury EVs, and going public in 2016. In April 2019, he was promoted to CEO.
"Now that we have successfully launched the Lucid Gravity, I have decided it is finally the right time for me to step aside from my roles at Lucid," Rawlinson said in a statement. "I am incredibly proud of the accomplishments the Lucid team have achieved together through my tenure of these past 12 years.”
His new role will be as the strategic technical advisor to the chairman of the board. As the company searches for a new leader, COO Marc Winterhoff has been appointed as interim CEO.
The news came just before Lucid announced its Q4 and full year 2024 earnings, which were slightly mixed. Although R&D expenses jumped 26% to $1.1 billion in 2024, net loss fell 5% to $2.7 billion.
Interim CFO Gagan Dhingra attributes the increased expenses to costs associated with the production and launch of Lucid’s first SUV, Gravity. In 2025, he said those expenses will likely “steadily increase” as the team ramps up investments into the next generation of its Atlas powertrain and upcoming mid-size platform.
In another executive shuffle, Dhingra, who served as interim CFO since December 2023, was promoted to SVP of finance and accounting. The CFO role has been officially filled by Taoufiq Boussaid.
Revenue improved on both a quarterly and annual basis, jumping 35% and 49% to $234 million and $808 million, respectively, compared to 2023.
Lucid owes those improvements to its production and delivery numbers: Q4 saw the company produce 3,386 vehicles (A 42% improvement year-over-year and 88% compared to Q3) and deliver 3,099 vehicles (Up 79% year-over-year). For the full year, Lucid managed to produce 9,029 vehicles, barely making it past its stated goal of 9,000.
Going forward, Lucid executives are aiming to more than double production numbers with a goal of 20,000 vehicles in 2025, although they also cautioned that they planned to “prudently manage and adjust” production to meet sales and delivery needs. This year will also see more Gravity SUVs in the hands of customers as Lucid opens orders for the lower trim Grand Touring.
Financially, leaders are targeting “significant” improvement on its gross margins. In 2024, that figure was negative 114%, up from negative 225% in 2023. However, Dhingra said those improvements would largely be in the second half of the year, with the first two quarters having similar numbers to Q4’s negative 89% and stressed that financial discipline “would be more critical than ever.”
Shares of Lucid (Ticker: LCID) have fluctuated over the past six months, hitting a 52-week low of $1.93 per share in November 2024. Lucid reported earnings after market close on Feb. 25 at $2.60 per share and opened the next day at $2.44 per share. The price dropped further and now sits at $2.52 per share.
