Lucid Motors names new CEO, lands more money from Uber and Saudis | TechCrunch

Lucid Motors has finally found a new CEO in long-time industrial executive, Silvio Napoli, marking the end of a more than year-long search following the sudden resignation of its former chief, Peter Rawlinson.

The company on Tuesday said that Napoli, who has spent the last few decades in various leadership positions at elevator and escalator company Schindler Group, will also join its board of directors.

Alongside the CEO appointment, Lucid said it has received another $200 million commitment from Uber, which has agreed to buy an additional 25,000 robotaxi-ready versions of Lucid’s upcoming mid-size vehicle. That brings Uber’s total committed investments in Lucid Motors to $500 million, and its minimum vehicle order to 35,000.

Finally, Lucid’s majority owner, the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund, is purchasing another $550 million of its shares.

The announcements come during an all-important year for Lucid Motors. The company is currently trying to ramp up production and sales of its second model, the Gravity SUV, after struggling to find a large market for its Air sedan. Lucid is also planning on releasing the first of three vehicles built on its mid-sized platform, which will allow it to target buyers looking to spend around $50,000 on a new car.

The company has taken tough measures to ensure it gets that vehicle into production. In February, it decided to lay off 12% of its workforce, TechCrunch reported. On Tuesday, Lucid Motors said in a regulatory filing that it has recently “reduced contractor headcount” at its Arizona factory “to improve cost efficiency.”

Lucid Motors has been without a permanent CEO since February 2025, when long-time leader Rawlinson suddenly left the company. Its chief operating officer, Marc Winterhoff, has served as interim CEO since, and had designs on taking over the CEO role, as TechCrunch previously reported, while the company cast an extremely wide net for a replacement. But Winterhoff’s oversight coincided with multiple quality issues during the rollout of its Gravity SUV.

Napoli will not start as CEO right away. He still needs to receive “the right to work in the U.S.,” according to a regulatory filing. Until that happens, he will be an “executive director” of Lucid Motors’ board under a Swiss employment agreement (where he lives). Lucid expects Napoli to receive permission to work in the U.S. “in the coming weeks,” after which Winterhoff will resume his role as chief operating officer.

Napoli stands to make a lot of money as Lucid’s new CEO. He’s starting with a base salary of $1.5 million, and is being given $1 million to move to the U.S. He’s also being awarded a bonus package, a grant of shares worth nearly $10 million, as well as a performance-based stock package that could be worth tens of millions of dollars.

Uber’s new commitment comes just a day after the ride-hail giant and its autonomous vehicle partner Nuro began testing modified Lucid Gravity SUVs for a luxury robotaxi service launching in San Francisco later this year. Uber first partnered up with Lucid Motors and Nuro last July, when it made a $300 million investment and agreed to buy at least 20,000 Gravity SUVs.

Lucid Motors revealed at an investor day event earlier this year that it was near an agreement with Uber to make a similar arrangement for its more affordable mid-size vehicles. The finalized agreement unveiled Tuesday reduces the minimum number of Gravity SUV orders to 10,000.

The Saudi investment is the latest in a long line of cash injections from the Kingdom into Lucid that started off as a company-saving investment in 2018.