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Emad Dlala out

The only thing Lucid had going for it was advanced technology. It desperately needed better organization and sale/service orientation. They are not mutually exclusive.

This feels like an "ax Steve Jobs" moment to me and I share everyone's concerns.

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Personally, I have a pet peeve about Silver Spoon individuals. I do consider myself a capitalist because I think that is the best way to harness human endeavor. Thus, I used to have some respect for wealthier among us: through creativity and hard work they had done well.

Increasingly I am detecting among the ultra-wealthy true idiocy and it nearly always comes from inherited wealth/power. Pick any of the big names doing something you cannot agree with and you often find they are second generation--not the great minds that succeeded.

What does this have to do with Emad? I suspect the SA board room full of powerful and wealthy people with unearned money flexed some muscle. I may be wrong (often am) but this smacks of bean-counter manipulation from above by people who have a fraction of the talent of those leaving: Peter, Eric, Emad, ...
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Does this mean all OG’s are out of Lucid?
 
The powertrain is not the problem….and all those patents are owned by Lucid, not Emad…...I strongly believe budget cuts made him take the decision to leave. No Cosmos Sapphire model. Napoli did say he was going to cut down on non-vital expenses.
 
drb3333 said:
The only thing Lucid had going for it was advanced technology. It desperately needed better organization and sale/service orientation. They are not mutually exclusive.

This feels like an "ax Steve Jobs" moment to me and I share everyone's concerns.

[rantMode=ON]
Personally, I have a pet peeve about Silver Spoon individuals. I do consider myself a capitalist because I think that is the best way to harness human endeavor. Thus, I used to have some respect for wealthier among us: through creativity and hard work they had done well.

Increasingly I am detecting among the ultra-wealthy true idiocy and it nearly always comes from inherited wealth/power. Pick any of the big names doing something you cannot agree with and you often find they are second generation--not the great minds that succeeded.

What does this have to do with Emad? I suspect the SA board room full of powerful and wealthy people with unearned money flexed some muscle. I may be wrong (often am) but this smacks of bean-counter manipulation from above by people who have a fraction of the talent of those leaving: Peter, Eric, Emad, ...
[rantMode=OFF]
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They are engineers, not good at managing international companies. That’s why Rawlinson was let go. I suspect Saudis were rightfully upset when he sold those dozen Gravities in Dec 2024 as a token gesture. Remember he got a $1 million bonus in Dec 2023 for Gravity reveal. With the company at a market value of 2 billion, something major had to give. Of course we will never know why Emad left but I’m optimistic for the changes being made by Napoli. He seems to be a no nonsense guy. Not afraid to take hard decisions like pulling 2026 guidance.

What Lucid needs now is a real proper experienced CEO.
 
There is allot we will probably never know, however Emad has certainly generated support from this forum through his recent customer-facing interaction with @hmp10 and others. To leave the company after such a seemingly successful 3.6.0 update makes it fly in the face of convention.

On a positive note, two vice presidents now report directly to the CEO, speeding the information channel between the ultimate head of the company with the operating departments that carry much of the weight of the company's future. It shows ownership has been taken by Mr. Napoli - something we haven't seen since Rawlinson.

I, for one, will give Napoli the rope to rein in the problems (let's not forget, there is still manufacturing, procurement, assembly and service to deal with). He appears to at least realize his role and we may find he even relishes it.

Dream Ahead, Mr. Napoli, the future of the car company is yours.
 
TahoeMichael said:
Whether Emad was pushed or jumped . . . .
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Too many times I've seen the loss of drive and focus that sets in when someone is contemplating leaving their jobs, and this was notably absent in Emad Dlala. I have been amazed in my recent interactions with him to see the hours he pulls and his determination to chase problems to ground even as recently as last week.

In one of our conversations, I mentioned almost in passing that I have seen more torque steer under hard acceleration in the Gravity Dreams than in our Air Dream. It is something I know is there, know it is common to high-powered vehicles, and I make allowances for its occurrence when I'm in a frisky mood on the open road. However, Emad got very interested and asked a lot of questions, as he said it was the first he had heard of it. The next day he texted to ask if I would be open to a conference call later that day with John Culliton, the head the chassis team. (I had the call, and Culliton, too, seemed an incredibly dedicated guy truly interested in customer input.)

I fear I'm detecting a pattern here. Besides its world-class automotive engineering, the other thing I found most impressive about Lucid was how responsive and engaged with the customers Lucid executives were. The fact the Lucid personnel, some very senior, read and become engaged with this forum is unique.

I never met or talked with Peter Rawlinson, but many journalists and owners found this trait in him. Kyle Conner has effused more than once on how actively Rawlinson sought input and responded to valid concerns. I had several interactions over the years with Zak Edson when he was the head of Sales & Service, and he was very focused on customer satisfaction. And I found Emad to be cut of the same cloth.

And now they're all gone. Are they burning out? Are they being kicked out?

The more Lucid starts to feel like any other car company, the more I lose interest in its products and its fate.
 
Disappointing from a customer standpoint since he became the public face of the company over the last year, making himself available for all the interviews and even direct to some customers. We all got to like him in that role. But I have no idea if being a good PR guy means he was effective at his main roles, or will fit well within the new leadership team.

What we do know is that the Gravity rollout was a disaster, and a lot of things need to improve if they're gonna survive as a company.

The last year did show us the value of a good PR person. I hope Lucid continues to put someone good out there that's as accessible as Emad was.
 
I remember my first encounter with Emad, outside the Lucid sponsored events. After purchasing my Air, I went to charge at the Pleasanton EA station in the Safeway parking lot. The charging stopped after 1 minute and I couldn't figure out why. Then I see an Air Fream Edition pulled up next to me. Out came Emad and asked if I was charging issues. He helped to get my charging session started and we chatted that he was there to test the charging authencation between the Lucid app and EA. He took a photo of my VIN to lookup the vehicle log.

Later that night, he texted me to let me know the cause: an over‑current fault had triggered the shutdown during the first attempt, and the issue had already been reported to EA.

I don’t know many company executives who personally step in to help customers at a random charging station. That chance encounter in 2024 genuinely shaped my view of Emad. He will be missed.
 
dbsb3233 said:
But I have no idea if being a good PR guy means he was effective at his main roles . . .
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Dlala was one of Rawlinson's earliest hires and was on the guru squad behind the drive unit technology that shot Lucid ahead of Tesla in terms of motor size, power density, and efficiency. And this, in turn, enabled the space engineering miracles that Derek Jenkins and his team pulled off.

And, if 3.6.0 turns out to be as good as first looks suggest, he pulled off no mean feat in getting the UI software on track.
 
This is shocking to say the least. A real loss for the company and it makes me worry for the future of this company for the first time.

There was a theory circulated here that Napoli was brought in simply to wind Lucid down, and not to push the company forward. Sadly, I am now starting to think that could be true. Remember we still have no information on a mid size reveal or release date. It's almost mid-June!

Emad leaving abruptly - literally a couple days after a hugely successful software update for Gravity, which he oversaw - could be related to future plans that were revealed that made his role, his vision for the product, nonviable.

Sad day.
 
I don’t see the logic in winding the company down. The investors, including the new ones, wouldn’t be putting money in to facilitate failure. I do think it’s obvious that a radical change in direction is coming.
 
prgarg said:
The announcement says he's leaving to pursue other opportunities... maybe he just got another job somewhere else
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I could list all the reasons that people that worked for me or around me left "to pursue other opportunities". That is long held industry-speak for "bye Felicia"
 
nashvillelucid said:
I don’t see the logic in winding the company down. The investors, including the new ones, wouldn’t be putting money in to facilitate failure. I do think it’s obvious that a radical change in direction is coming.
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Maybe. But what kind of change in direction for a car company would mean losing one of your top technical talents?

We still don't know (and perhaps never will) whether Dlala was forced out. But if he was, there is nothing promising in doing so.

With Peter Rawlinson, they lost the engineer whose name was on 70 Tesla patents and who had a vision almost as novel as Musk's in imagining the next step for vehicle technical evolution. It's easy to forget that Rawlinson and the technical team he put together produced a first product that outsold the Tesla Model S, the Porsche Taycan, the BMW I7, and the Mercedes EQS.

With Eric Bach they lost a top-notch engineer with deep experience in German and EV automotive engineering. With Dlala they lost a serious talent in powertrain engineering.

If these guys were making bad business decisions, you redefine their wheelhouses. You don't toss them to the curb . . . if that's, indeed, what happened with Dlala.
 
I am shocked and very disappointed in this news. Emad is a very unique engineer and leader. He is extremely nice, deeply technical and a caring leader. His accomplishments at Lucid were enormous, just look at the technical leadership Lucid has in power train weight, size and efficiency. Not all of the ideas were Emad's but he did a fantastic job of leading the team.

After the December 2024 Gravity delivery event, I had the opportunity to spend about an hour with Emad driving him back to his hotel. We had an in depth discussion about DC fast charging, charging curves and battery limitations. We also talked extensively about SiC components, inverters and reliability testing. His breadth and depth of knowledge amazed me. Finally we talked about leadership style and people. I could easily see why his team respected and wanted to follow his lead. After dropping him off at his hotel, I left feeling lucky to have spent time with him.

At the last factory family day, Emad gave me and couple of other people a private tour of the power train line. He was like a kid in a candy store wanting to show us the important/cool details of the motors, inverters and controllers. It was fun too see and demonstrated how excited Emad gets about technology.

I was disappointed when Peter Rawlinson was replaced but I am even more disappointed now. I now worry about Lucid's long term technical leadership which is the one big competitive advantage that Lucid has.
 
hmp10 said:
If these guys were making bad business decisions, you redefine their wheelhouses. You don't toss them to the curb . . . if that's, indeed, what happened with Dlala.
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100%. I suck at business so that is all handled by my partner. He has no clue about the technology that I implement. But why would we ever switch roles?

Surely Lucid could have found a way to keep Peter, Eric, Emad and get some good business brains on everything else.
 
nashvillelucid said:
I don’t see the logic in winding the company down. The investors, including the new ones, wouldn’t be putting money in to facilitate failure. I do think it’s obvious that a radical change in direction is coming.
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I hope you're right! But someone like Emad leaving (whether he was let go or left voluntarily) who was clearly so pivotal to and passionate about righting this ship ... something smells off about it.

Perhaps PIF taking Lucid private is a distinct possibility now. They have a facility to manufacture domestically, and they have control. I also read US sales were not great in April/May (unverified). They're so delayed in getting the mid-size out compared to the competition, I think Cosmos could end up being an afterthought. The other players (R2, ix3, EX60) will grab that market share and run with it. People still don't know who Lucid is as they have near zero marketing presence currently.

My hope was that Cosmos will have other-worldly performance, range and functionality - along with supreme software stability - such that it will be head and shoulders above the competition. Emad's departure makes me seriously doubt Lucid's ability to execute this.
 
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