Lucid Motors has finally found a new CEO in longtime industry executive Silvio Napoli, marking the end of a more than year-long search following the sudden resignation of former boss Peter Rawlinson.
The company said Tuesday that Napoli, who spent the past several decades in various executive positions at elevator and escalator company Schindler Group, will join its board.
Along with the CEO appointment, Lucid said it received another $200 million commitment from Uber, which agreed to buy an additional 25,000 robotaction-ready versions of Lucid’s upcoming midsize vehicle. This brings Uber’s total investment in Lucid Motors to $500 million, with a minimum order of 35,000 vehicles.
Finally, Lucid’s largest owner, Saudi Arabia’s State Investment Fund, is buying another $550 million worth of its shares.
The announcements come in a very 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 also plans to release the first of three vehicles built on its midsize platform, which will allow it to target buyers willing to spend around $50,000 on a new car.
The company took strict measures to release that car into production. He decided in February quit the job TechCrunch reports that 12% of the workforce. Lucid Motors said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday that it recently reduced the number of contractor workers at its Arizona factory “to improve cost efficiencies.”
Lucid Motors has been without a permanent CEO since February 2025, when longtime leader Rawlinson abruptly left the company. Chief Operating Officer Marc Winterhoff has been serving as interim CEO since then and has plans to take over the CEO role. TechCrunch previously reportedthe company cast an extremely wide net to replace it. But it coincided with Winterhoff’s supervision numerous quality Problems during the launch of the Gravity SUV.
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Napoli will not start as CEO immediately. According to regulatory filings, he still needs to obtain “authorization to work in the United States.” Until that happens, he will be an “executive director” of the Lucid Motors board under a Swiss employment contract (where he lives). Lucid expects Napoli to receive approval to operate in the U.S. “in the coming weeks,” after which Winterhoff will continue as chief operating officer.
Napoli is set to make a lot of money as Lucid’s new CEO. He starts with a base salary of $1.5 million and is given $1 million to move to the United States. He is also being awarded a bonus package, a stock grant worth about $10 million, as well as a performance-based stock package that could be worth tens of millions of dollars.
Uber’s new commitment comes a day after the 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 with Lucid Motors and Nuro last Julyat the time it invested $300 million and agreed to buy at least 20,000 Gravity SUVs.
This was reported by Lucid Motors investor day event earlier this year It said it was close to a deal with Uber to make a similar arrangement for its more affordable midsize cars. The final deal, announced Tuesday, lowers the minimum number of orders for the Gravity SUV to 10,000.
The Saudi investment is the latest in a long line of cash injections from the Kingdom into Lucid, which began as a company-saving investment in 2018.
