Lucid Gravity charging at Tesla's Network
Image Credit: Lucid Motors

Lucid Taps Industry Consultant to Lead Charging and Smart Energy Strategy

Lucid Motors has hired Karim Farhat as its new director to lead the charging and smart energy units, the executive said on Tuesday.

Last week, Lucid announced four new executives, including former Beyond Meat and Red Bull executive Akerho “AK” Oghoghomeh as senior vice president of marketing.

Jason Ryska, Dr. Kay Stepper, and Adrian Price also joined in leadership roles overseeing manufacturing, autonomous driving, and operations.

In a LinkedIn post, Farhat said he will lead teams working across public and home charging, vehicle-to-grid capabilities, software, hardware, and strategic energy partnerships.

“Charging shouldn’t feel like a chore. It should be a signature, a source of pride for the customer, and a source of strength for the business,” he wrote.

Farhat previously served as founder and principal consultant at KFacts, a firm focused on electric mobility and clean energy transition strategies. He was also a board member of the Electric Vehicle Charging Association in the first half of 2024.

At Lucid, Farhat will report to Emad Dlala, who joined the EV maker in a very early stage in 2015 and was promoted in February to senior vice president of powertrain and battery engineering.

Lucid customers gained access to Tesla’s Supercharger network in January.

The company claimed earlier this year that the Gravity SUV, Lucid’s second production model, became the first non-Tesla vehicle sold with a NACS charge port when deliveries began in December 2024.

The model supports bi-directional charging of up to 19.2 kW and includes RangeXchange, a feature enabling vehicle-to-vehicle charging via the NACS connector.

The new hiring comes days after Lucid’s head of investor relations, Maynard Um, announced his departure. Since late 2023, eleven executives have left the company — or twelve, including CEO and CTO Peter Rawlinson, who stepped down in February and moved into a strategic advisory role.

Below is the full statement shared by Karim Farhat on LinkedIn.

“Thrilled to share that I’ve joined Lucid Motors as Director of Charging and Smart Energy.

The Lucid car is an engineering marvel, designed to push boundaries and make a statement. Every curve, circuit, and line of code is a bold declaration of what’s possible when design and performance meet uncompromising vision for the future of electric vehicles.

My mission is to make the charging experience just as iconic, refined, and daring. Charging shouldn’t feel like a chore. It should be a signature, a source of pride for the customer, and a source of strength for the business.

I’ll be leading a passionate and skilled team across public and home charging, vehicle-to-grid and smart energy, software, hardware, and strategic partnerships, building an ecosystem where every plug-in moment reinforces the Lucid brand. Grateful to Emad Dlala for the trust, and to the team for the warm welcome.

We’ve got all the ingredients and the ambition to reimagine what’s possible. Now let’s make it exceptional, the Lucid way: Comprising Nothing.”

Cláudio Afonso founded CARBA in early 2021 and launched the news blog EV later that year. Following a 1.5-year hiatus, he relaunched EV in April 2024. In late 2024, he also started AV, a blog dedicated to the autonomous vehicle industry.