The two CEOs of the latest entrants in the electric vehicle (EV) marketplace earned a lot of money in 2021, with Lucid’s Peter Rawlinson and Rivian’s RJ Scaringe taking home nearly $1 billion combined last year.
Lucid’s Rawlinson earned a little more than his counterpart at Rivian, receiving $566 million compared to Scaringe’s $422 million.
Rawlinson received roughly $529,000 in salary and about $2.4 million in bonuses. Scaringe made $650,000 in salary, plus about $121,000 in security services, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.
The rest was tied up in equity, meaning it will take years before that can be converted into cash and deposited into their bank accounts.
And by that time, those amounts could be significantly more, or less depending on how their respective companies perform and if they are able to meet certain targets.
Rawlinson has already received full access to a portion of his stock-based remuneration, which is currently worth almost $300 million, but hasn’t sold any of the stock yet. Whereas Scaringe won’t acquire full title to much of his equity award until early 2027, when Rivian plans to start analyzing performance metrics for it.
A special equity award accounted for more than half of Scaringe’s pay, including $152 million in options that will only vest if Rivian’s stock price remains over $110 for a certain period of time, as well as $89 million in options that will vest over six years. So far, none have vested as the company’s share prices have dropped to under $30 from an all-time high of nearly $180.
According to securities filings by both automakers, the stock awards are meant to drive executives to accomplish strategic and market goals, as well as to align their interests with those of shareholders in general. Rawlinson’s technological leadership was also specifically mentioned by Lucid.
The pay packages are significantly higher than those awarded to CEOs at legacy automakers, some 14 times higher than what is offered at Ford and General Motors, and also sits near the top for a CEO of any company in the Russell 3000 Index.
The big pay packages were awarded at a time when both companies were bringing their first EVs to market and suffering deep losses. Rivian posted a $4.22 billion loss for the twelve months ended December 31, 2021, while Lucid posted a net loss of over $4.7 billion during the same time period.
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