Lucid Motors’ chief for the Middle East region, Faisal Sultan, has been promoted to President of the region, as the Saudi-backed EV maker prepares to enter additional markets in the Middle East “very soon.”
Sultan, who announced the promotion on LinkedIn this week, is now “leading strategic direction and decision-making” in the region, “building key relationships and ensuring legal compliance.”
He joined Lucid in mid-2019 as Head of Global Operations before being promoted to Managing Director of the Middle East region in late 2020.
Although his LinkedIn profile does not mention a vice president role, Lucid’s website states the executive is one of the VPs.
“Faisal Sultan is our Vice President, Managing Director of Lucid Middle East. In this role, he oversees strategy for Middle East expansion and operations, sets comprehensive goals for performance and growth, establishes policies that promote company culture and vision, and manages relationships with key partners,” Lucid’s website reads.
As recently confirmed by interim CEO Marc Winterhoff at the Saudi-US Investment Forum held in Riyadh, the EV maker plans to enter several new countries in the Middle East later this year.
The company, backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, will continue expanding in Europe and the Middle East.
“We have started Abu Dhabi and we’re looking into Qatar and other additional markets coming very soon,” Winterhoff told Bloomberg.
At the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call in February, Winterhoff had said Lucid was “accelerating the growth of our retail footprint and market coverage” in Europe.
Winterhoff said last week the kingdom should consider tariffs on foreign cars to boost domestic auto manufacturing and cut reliance on imports. Without tariffs on vehicle imports, the interim CEO warned of the risk of “killing the industry in its infancy.”
“It doesn’t mean that this has to go on forever, but in order to have that kind of change in the market, you need to support local players in the beginning,” he said.
