Wednesday marks exactly one year since Lucid Motors announced that founder-era CEO Peter Rawlinson was leaving the role, triggering what the board described as a search for “Lucid’s next Chief Executive Officer with the support of a leading executive search firm.”
Twelve months later, the search has produced no public result, no shortlist, and no timeline.
Marc Winterhoff, a former management consultant who joined Lucid as Chief Operating Officer in December 2023 and was named interim CEO on February 25, 2025, addressed the question directly on Tuesday during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call.
When a retail shareholder asked via the Say platform when the board plans to appoint a permanent CEO, Winterhoff’s response was brief: “That is a question for the Board, and I don’t have any further updates to give today.”
He offered no further comment.
In its February 25, 2025, press release, Lucid stated that “as part of the company’s regular succession planning process, the Board has initiated a search to identify Lucid‘s next Chief Executive Officer with the support of a leading executive search firm. The new CEO will help Lucid execute its strategy and prepare for the next chapter.”
A year later, the company has not disclosed whether the search remains active, whether candidates have been interviewed, or whether the board has reconsidered the need for a permanent appointment altogether.
Lucid‘s proxy filings and subsequent earnings calls have not referenced the CEO search since the original announcement.
The stock, which was trading at approximately $2.60 (pre-split equivalent) on the day Rawlinson’s departure was announced, hit a new all-time low of $8.90 — equivalent to $0.89 pre-split — in Tuesday’s after-hours session immediately after the company released its fourth-quarter results.
Rawlinson’s Departure
Peter Rawlinson joined Lucid in 2013 as Chief Technology Officer and became CEO in April 2019.
Prior to Lucid, he served as Vice President and Chief Engineer for Tesla’s Model S from 2009 to 2012.
The February 2025 announcement said Rawlinson would transition to a role as “Strategic Technical Advisor to the Chairman of the Board.”
The company did not provide a reason for his departure beyond describing the move as part of its “regular succession planning process.” Rawlinson, in a statement at the time, said he was “incredibly proud of the accomplishments the Lucid team have achieved together through my tenure of these past twelve years.”
His exit came after a turbulent period for the company.
Lucid had missed production targets in 2024, its stock had declined sharply from its 2021 peak, and the company was navigating an increasingly strained relationship with the Public Investment Fund (PIF), which has invested approximately $9 billion in Lucid since 2018 and remains the company’s largest shareholder and primary financial backstop.
Rawlinson’s compensation had also drawn scrutiny.
In 2022, his total compensation reached $379 million — significantly above industry peers such as General Motors CEO Mary Barra ($34 million) and Ford CEO Jim Farley ($18 million) for the same year.
According to an 8-K filing, Lucid‘s board also approved a $6 million cash bonus for Rawlinson in recognition of his role in the Gravity SUV’s development.
Rawlinson has previously said that much of his pay was tied to a one-time stock grant linked to market capitalisation milestones, not recurring salary.
Winterhoff’s Background
Winterhoff was appointed as Lucid‘s COO on December 4, 2023, reporting directly to Rawlinson.
At the time, the EV maker said he would focus on “driving Lucid’s operational efficiency, accelerating Lucid’s international expansion, enhancing its go-to-market strategy, and maturing its world-class manufacturing operations.”
Before joining 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 management, and sales and service strategies.
Earlier in his career, he spent more than a decade at Arthur D. Little as a director in its Frankfurt office and held a leadership role at LHS Communications. He holds a master’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering and management from the Technische Universität Darmstadt.
He had been at Lucid for approximately fourteen months — and COO for less than three — when he was named interim CEO.
What Has Changed
In the twelve months since his appointment, Winterhoff has overseen the ramp of the Gravity SUV (which was affected by both internal and external issues) and nearly doubled annual production from 9,029 to 17,840 vehicles.
Additionally, Winterhoff 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 including signing the company’s first dealer partner in Germany.
Last week, the company executed a 12% reduction of the US salaried workforce — a move he said would yield approximately $500 million in savings over three years.
He has also set the company’s 2026 agenda: production guidance of 25,000 to 27,000 vehicles, the start of production for a new mid-size platform vehicle by year-end, and commercial deployment of the first Lucid robotaxis with Uber.
An Investor Day is scheduled for March 12 where the company will provide more details on its Autonomy roadmap but also on the new mid-size platform.
Lucid disclosed on Tuesday that it produced 17,840 vehicles in 2025 — fewer than the 18,378 it had preliminarily reported on January 5, after determining that 538 vehicles had not completed internal validation procedures.
The revised figure barely meets the company’s twice-reduced guidance of “approximately 18,000” units, a target that began the year at 20,000 before being cut to 18,000–20,000 in August and then to approximately 18,000 in November.
The company also posted a full-year net loss of $2.70 billion and a record quarterly operating loss of $1.065 billion in Q4.
A Pattern of Executive Turnover
Rawlinson’s departure was not an isolated event.
As first reported by EV earlier this month, Lucid‘s Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Development Claudia Gast has resigned from the company, according to a person familiar with the matter — and later in the day confirmed by Lucid.
The departure marks the thirteenth exit of a C-level or vice president in approximately two and a half years, continuing a leadership exodus that has seen nearly the entire executive team turn over since late 2023.
The departures have spanned engineering, finance, manufacturing, and commercial functions.
Among them: Vice President of Marketing and Communications Andrea Soriani, who left to rejoin Maserati as General Manager for North America, and Alexander Lutz, who had been managing director for Lucid‘s European operations.
Lucid shares hit a new all-time low of $8.90 in Tuesday’s after-hours session immediately following the release of its fourth-quarter earnings results.
The stock price is equivalent to $0.89 before the company’s 1-for-10 reverse stock split in August 2025 — down more than 98% from their 2021 peak.
