Lucid Motors appointed Silvio Napoli as its next CEO on Tuesday, ending a 14-month search for a permanent leader and handing the role to a Swiss-Italian executive who spent more than three decades running one of the world’s largest elevator and escalator companies.
Napoli, who most recently served as Executive Chairman and CEO of Schindler Group, will join the EV maker’s board of directors and relocate from Switzerland to the United States.
Immediately after the appointment, Lucid shares jumped by 11% as the EV maker announced the expansion of the Uber deal to 35,000 units and a new round of financial support from the main shareholder, Public Investment Fund (PIF).
On X, Lucid’s VP of Communications Nick Twork wrote that Tuesday marks “a big day” for the company.
“Big day for Lucid: welcoming Silvio Napoli as our next CEO, significant additional strategic and financial support from Uber and PIF, with expansion of our @Uber robotaxi partnership to 35,000 vehicles,” Twork wrote.
Interim CEO Marc Winterhoff will transition to the role of Chief Operating Officer once Napoli assumes the position — the same role Winterhoff occupied before being named interim CEO in February 2025.
“Silvio is a proven global leader with deep experience leading complex, technology-driven organizations through periods of rapid growth and operational scaling,” said Turqi Alnowaiser, Chairman of the Lucid Board of Directors, in a statement.
The appointment comes as Lucid‘s shares hit a new all-time low of $8.32 on Monday, extending a week-long string of successive lows driven by mounting recall pressure, weak first-quarter deliveries, and broader market losses.
Who Is Silvio Napoli
Napoli spent 30 years and 11 months at the Schindler Group, a Swiss multinational that manufactures elevators, escalators, and moving walkways across more than 140 countries with approximately 69,000 employees and annual revenue of approximately CHF 11 billion ($13 billion).
He became CEO in January 2014 and was elevated to Executive Chairman in April 2016, a dual role he held until March 2025.
Schindler said in December 2024 that Napoli had “decided not to stand for reelection” at the March 2025 annual meeting and would “pursue new career challenges.”
The board credited him with leading “a successful turnaround in the past three years, amidst a challenging environment.”
He served as CEO of the Jardine Schindler Group (2005-2008), General Manager of Schindler Hong Kong, CEO of Schindler India, and Head of Corporate Planning.
Napoli holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, earned as a Fulbright Scholar, and a Master’s degree in Material Science from EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne).
He also sits on the board of directors of Eaton Corporation, a $22 billion industrial conglomerate, a position he has held since 2019.
He served as Chairman and President of the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce from 2019 to 2022.
Winterhoff’s Tenure
Winterhoff joined Lucid as Chief Operating Officer on December 4, 2023, and was named interim CEO on February 25, 2025 — less than three months into his COO tenure — after founder-era CEO Peter Rawlinson departed.
Before Lucid, Winterhoff was a senior partner at Roland Berger, a European management consulting firm, where he specialised in operational leadership for automotive manufacturers, cost efficiency, and go-to-market strategy.
Earlier in his career, he spent more than a decade at Arthur D. Little and held a leadership role at LHS Communications.
In 14 months as interim CEO, Winterhoff nearly doubled annual production from 9,029 to 17,840 vehicles, oversaw the ramp of the Gravity SUV, signed a $300 million strategic investment and robotaxi partnership with Uber, began on-road autonomous testing in the San Francisco Bay Area, expanded Lucid‘s European retail footprint, and signed the company’s first dealer partner in Germany.
He led the company’s inaugural Investor Day on March 12, where Lucid revealed the Cosmos and Earth mid-size vehicle platforms and outlined a path to 100,000 units annually by 2028.
“We have laid out a clear vision and enhanced strategy, and I look forward to continuing that work alongside Silvio,” Winterhoff said in the statement.
His move to COO preserves continuity in Lucid‘s operational leadership during the transition.
The Search
Lucid‘s board announced on February 25, 2025, that it had “initiated a search to identify the company’s next Chief Executive Officer with the support of a leading executive search firm.”
For 14 months, the company provided no public updates on the search. Winterhoff addressed the question directly on the Q4 2025 earnings call in March, when a shareholder asked about the timeline.
His response was brief: “That is a question for the Board, and I don’t have any further updates to give today.”
The company’s proxy filings and subsequent earnings calls did not reference the search again until Tuesday’s announcement.
What Napoli Inherits
Napoli takes over a company that posted its first-ever quarterly GAAP net profit in Q4 2025 but continues to face significant execution challenges.
Lucid produced 5,500 vehicles and delivered 3,093 in Q1 2026.
It has guided for production of 25,000 to 27,000 vehicles this year, representing 40% to 50% growth over 2025.
The company is managing four safety recalls in 2026 so far, including two physical recalls in recent weeks — the Gravity seat belt defect affecting 4,476 units and an expanded Air half-shaft recall covering 3,627 sedans.
At the same time, Lucid is preparing for the Cosmos mid-size SUV to enter production at its Saudi Arabian plant by year-end, with CFO Taoufiq Boussaid projecting a “relatively slow ramp in 2027 and then moving towards full capacity in 2028.”
The Saudi facility is being built with capacity for 150,000 units per year.
Napoli said in the statement that his “focus will be on consistent execution, financial discipline and helping translate Lucid‘s breakthrough innovations into long-term value.”
