Lucid
- Lucid’s new CEO, Silvio Napoli, said the car company launched vehicles before they were ready.
- He’s changing how the EV maker launches vehicles, and pushing back the midsize Cosmos to 2027.
- Lucid’s two vehicles — the Gravity and the Air — have struggled with software issues.
Lucid Motors has a new CEO — and he has a blunt new assessment of what’s gone wrong at the EV maker.
During an earnings call on Tuesday, Silvio Napoli, the company’s chief executive since June, said the automaker has “disappointed on several fronts and for far too long.” The company reported a net loss of more than $1 billion in the quarter.
“We have not executed consistently,” he said. “We missed commitments, launched products before they were ready, under-invested in service, responded too slowly to quality issues, and allowed complexity to slow decisions down.”
Lucid has launched two luxury electric vehicles, the Air sedan and the Gravity three-row SUV. Owners have told the Business Insider that the vehicles have been marred by software glitches, including key fob and infotainment issues.
Now, Lucid says it is changing how it develops its next car.
That will push its planned launch of the roughly $50,000 midsize Cosmos into the second half of 2027 — it was expected to start production this year.
The automaker has introduced new “quality gates” intended to ensure that all production and quality requirements are met before launch, a spokesperson told Business Insider. Lucid declined to explain how the checks differ from its previous process.
Napoli said the Cosmos “will launch only when every process and quality requirement has been met.”
Company materials show that Cosmos prototypes are undergoing crash development, aerodynamic refinement, cold-weather evaluation, and battery and drive-unit testing. Lucid said more prototype builds, regulatory work, and manufacturing validation remain.
Lucid
The delay gives rivals more time to establish themselves in the midsize electric SUV market. Rivian began delivering its R2 in June, while Tesla recently brought the three-row Model Y L to the US.
Lucid was founded by former Tesla engineers seeking to build a more efficient EV and is backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. It has lost money since it began producing cars.
The company has already scaled back significantly this year after overproducing its Gravity SUV. It cut 12% of its workforce in February and another 18% in June, while removing the chief operating officer role. Napoli has swiftly changed the company’s C-suite, too.
The reset plans also come weeks after Lucid strongly rejected bankruptcy rumors. The company said on Tuesday that it has about $3 billion in total liquidity.
“We have a clear understanding of the key issues,” Napoli said on the call. “A deep transformation is in motion at Lucid.”
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