Lucid has had their fair of struggles since they started deliveries in 2021, from a slow production ramp to slow sales, leading to substantial price cuts and a growing number of vehicles in inventory. Despite these struggles, CEO Peter Rawlinson has been awarded a $6 million cash bonus for revealing their second vehicle, the Gravity SUV.
If you have been a regular reader of Drive Tesla you are likely well aware of Lucid’s struggles. In 2023, the company manufactured 8,428 Air sedans, falling significantly short of their initial goal to produce up to 14,000 vehicles in the year (in December that was revised to 8,000-8,500).
Of those 8,428 vehicles that were built, reports indicate Lucid is lost as much as $338,000 on every single one of them, a figure 10 times more than Rivian, who started production at roughly the same time as Lucid.
Adding to their woes is that they can’t sell the small number of vehicles they are producing, delivering only 6,001 cars last year. When you add up all the cars Lucid has built, and subtract the number of deliveries, the automaker is holding on to more than 5,000 of them, somewhere in the US.
Despite all of this, and despite being the highest-paid CEO in the publicly-traded car manufacturing sector, taking home $379 million in 2022, Peter Rawlinson was awarded a $6 million cash bonus this week.
According to a Form 8-K filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday, Rawlinson was given this cash bonus from the Compensation and Human Capital Committee of the Board of Directors of the Company “in recognition of his significant contributions to this milestone achievement,” referring to the unveiling of the Gravity SUV.
Lucid Group, Inc. (the “Company”) unveiled the Lucid Gravity, a luxury sport utility vehicle, to the public at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November 2023, which marked a major technical, commercial, and design milestone achievement for the Company. On February 9, 2024, the Compensation and Human Capital Committee of the Board of Directors of the Company (the “Board”) recommended and the Board approved payment of a cash bonus to the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer, Peter Rawlinson, in the amount of $6,000,000, in recognition of his significant contributions to this milestone achievement.
The cash bonus was announced on the same day that Lucid cuts prices on its Air sedans in Canada and the US by up to 10% in an attempt to boost lagging sales. With the price cuts, the starting price of the entry-level Air sedan in Canada is now $96,800 and $69,900 in the US.
