Lucid is making some modifications. The luxurious EV firm stated Tuesday that it was increasing its robotaxi deal with Uber — and nabbing some extra funding money within the course of. And it’s naming a brand new CEO who hails not from the world of electrical automobiles, however from an organization that manufactures a special type of mobility gadget: elevators, escalators, and transferring walkways.
First, Lucid stated that Uber is rising the variety of Lucid Gravity SUVs it’s buying, from 20,000 to 35,000, for its robotaxi fleet. Should you’ll recall, final 12 months, Lucid, Uber, and autonomous supply startup Nuro introduced a large robotaxi deal that will see the deployment of hundreds of autonomous automobiles within the US over the subsequent six years. The fleet can be owned by Uber or a third-party fleet administration companion. And the primary service can be launched in San Francisco.
Uber can also be chipping in extra money for Lucid by including $200 million to the $300 million it already delivered final 12 months. Uber has additionally invested a whole bunch of tens of millions of {dollars} in Nuro, which is creating the self-driving techniques for the robotaxis. And Lucid is netting one other $500 million from an affiliate of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, which already holds a controlling stake within the firm.
And as if that’s not sufficient, Lucid is naming a brand new CEO: Silvio Napoli, a Swiss-Italian government who spent greater than three a long time operating one of many world’s largest elevator and escalator firms. Napoli is presently primarily based in Switzerland, however plans on relocating to the US, Lucid says.
The appointment ends the 14 month seek for the everlasting alternative to Peter Rawlinson, who stepped down in February of final 12 months. Chief working officer Marc Winterhoff stepped into the roll whereas a search was underway. Rawlinson had helped discovered the corporate after serving for a number of years as chief engineer of the Tesla Mannequin S.