Peter Rawlinson switches to advisory role at Lucid

Peter Rawlinson is stepping down from the operational management of electric car manufacturer Lucid. Rawlinson will remain on board as a strategic and technical advisor to the Board of Directors. In the short term, there is only an interim CEO - and a slightly lower net loss.

“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,” says Rawlinson. “I am incredibly proud of the accomplishments the Lucid team have achieved together through my tenure of these past twelve years. We grew from a tiny company with a big ambition, to a widely recognized technological world leader in sustainable mobility.”

Following Rawlinson’s retirement, the Board of Directors has appointed Marc Winterhoff, currently Chief Operating Officer, as interim CEO. “As part of the company’s regular succession planning process,” the Board of Directors has initiated the search for a successor together with an HR consultancy firm, according to a statement. A time frame for this search is not mentioned, but the mission of the future boss is: “The new CEO will help Lucid execute its strategy and prepare for the next chapter.”

The Board of Directors thanked Rawlinson “for his years of service and dedication to Lucid as CEO and CTO […]Having assembled a deep bench of technology leaders and positioned the company for its next phase, Peter has decided to step aside from the day-to-day operations and take on an advisory role. With his extensive background in the automotive industry, Marc is uniquely suited to leading the company during this transition period,” says Turqi Alnowaiser, Chairman of the Board of Directors. “The Board looks forward to partnering with Marc and our talented senior leadership team as we execute our strategic initiatives to position the company for long-term growth and gross margin improvement. Under Marc’s leadership, we expect business and operations to continue as usual.”

Winterhoff holds a degree in industrial engineering from TU Darmstadt and worked in the consulting industry for more than 20 years – for Arthur D. Little in Frankfurt, for example, and later for Roland Berger in the USA. He then moved to Lucid in December 2023 and joined directly as COO. In his first statement, the new CEO also directly sets strict targets: “Our team remains focused on further ramping production of the Lucid Gravity, preparing for the launch of our three midsize platform vehicles, and continuing development of our low-cost Atlas drive unit while we aggressively reduce our costs.”

Cutting costs is also necessary, as the company remains in the red – Lucid published its business figures for the past year at the same time as the change of CEO. In 2024, the car manufacturer generated sales of 807.8 million US dollars (769.5 million euros), compared to 595.3 million US dollars in 2023 (567 million euros). The net loss fell slightly compared to the previous year from around USD 2.8 billion to USD 2.7 billion (EUR 2.57 billion). As reported, Lucid produced a total of 9,029 vehicles in 2024 and delivered 10,241. Lucid’s production target for 2025 is around 20,000 vehicles. It will “continue to prudently manage and adjust production to meet sales and delivery needs.”

lucidmotors.com (CEO), lucidmotors.com (financial figures)