Emad Dlala out

[borski]

Isn’t Emad an expert in powertrain, not software?

Yes. Never claimed otherwise. He’s also an exceptional leader.

The next 5 years, Lucid needs software. All the other ICE manufacturers are cutting down on EV investments. Creating the best powertrain never worked without good software. But good software works with a mediocre powertrain when selling cars.

He just hired the VP of Software. You don’t have to be an expert at software to run a software team well. You need to be an expert at listening and learning quickly, as well as managing people and timelines.

Emad was doing well, imho, at least from how it looks externally.

Lucid needed to distance itself from the old way, cut costs, so they can survive. No point going down the sane Air/Gravity route.

They did that many months ago. Emad was leading the charge on the “new” way.

And Lucid owns all the patents.

Not sure how that’s relevant. Expertise is lost with people, not patents. Of course Lucid owns their IP.

Unfortunately Rawlinson Dream team were good at engineering but bad at everything else.

Everything? Seems hyperbolic.

 

[borski]

Napoli is known for being cost conscious, the spending is what is doing Lucid in.

No, it isn’t. Lucid’s spending is normal for a company in its early days of heavy R&D. What’s hurting Lucid is immature software (or, at a minimum, the perception thereof), reliability (or the perception of a lack thereof), significantly slowed down service (at least at some locations), and lower-than-expected sales.

Spending is important, but not what’s hurting Lucid the most, imho.

 

[doubletwist]

We paid for cars, not a transportation service though.

I get the "luxury" aspect some are talking about. Premium. And if were limited to just premium brands (that we're paying so much extra for), OK, I get it. But it seems to be becoming more the norm for non-premium brands too. Adding costs.

Well sure. That's how market dynamics work, as long as people keep paying what it costs to buy the products and services available. If a less premium brand figures out a way to provide a slightly more premium experience and still make a profit, then that has the potential to convert buyers from their competitors. Then of course once one succeeded with it, their competitors have no choice to follow, and it eventually becomes table stakes for any carmaker in that segment.

Eventually the lower end either decides they can't do that profitably, and don't offer that service, or they are profitable, and the people who get priced out of the lower end new cars move to buying used.

I'm not saying I agree with the way this all works out, just saying that's how it tends to work out. But that's how it always been . Early carmakers didn't when have a warranty, or maybe a 90-day warranty. Eventually those got added and extended to longer and longer periods, even though it increased their costs, until it eventually became an absolute requirement for a carmaker to succeed.

 

[borski]

Emad was the middleman, reporting to the CEO on powertrain and software. He is not a software expert. Maybe it was time to get rid of that role and cut costs. Maybe Emad didn’t like what was offered.

Time will tell, but with someone like Emad, you offer what will keep him, if necessary. That’s my personal opinion.

He’s not indispensable, but he’s pretty damn close, especially today.

I wish Marc luck, and I do think he’s great. I look forward to doing anything I can (externally, of course) to work with and help him.

But it’s going to be tougher for him now than before, in my estimation. I do hope I’m wrong. Either way, I think he’ll do well.

Lucid just didn’t need “yet another obstacle” in its way.

 

[dbsb3233]

Emad was the middleman, reporting to the CEO on powertrain and software. He is not a software expert. Maybe it was time to get rid of that role and cut costs. Maybe Emad didn’t like what was offered.

And maybe he just left on his own accord after taking over the software mess working round-the-clock on it? Multiple reports of him working long hours and weekends, willing to bend over backwards for people. That takes a personal toll after a while.

 

[BS8899]

Napoli is known for being cost conscious, the spending is what is doing Lucid in.

Aside from spending, are any of the owners on this forum following what the Lucid Corporate strategy is?

Let me pose a few questions.....feel free to educate me:

> Air: I presume there will not be much upgrade to the Air. UX2 is done. UX3 on the Air may come later this year on next year. Thereafter, nothing much will happen?

> Gravity: latest SW update is supposed to fix most/all of the known SW problems. What are the major HW/SW upgrades in the coming 1-2 years?

> Cosmo: startup will be in AMP2 and first shipments will be in SA? Start shipping EOY 2026? Early 2027? Mid 2027? Won't come to US till late 2027 or early 2028?

> Service Centers: many are under stress. Service appointments queuing methodology is insane. Service likely to limit Lucid's ability to ship more products?

> SW: Allegedly, earlier this year, Lucid replaced the leadership of its SW team. Is SW on track now?

> State-of-the-Union: Will the new CEO come out soon to address where Lucid is going and how to stay relevant/competitive?

 

[gaskiller]

And maybe he just left on his own accord after taking over the software mess working round-the-clock on it? Multiple reports of him working long hours and weekends, willing to bend over backwards for people. That takes a personal toll after a while.

I really think Napoli cut the powertrain R and D budget to cut costs. Emad didn’t like that, left. Right or wrong thing to do, nit sure. Just me speculating.

 

[borski]

And maybe he just left on his own accord after taking over the software mess working round-the-clock on it? Multiple reports of him working long hours and weekends, willing to bend over backwards for people. That takes a personal toll after a while.

It’s certainly possible. But I did not get the indication from him he was interested in leaving at all. He very much intended to be there for a long time, which is something we chatted about relatively recently.

It is absolutely possible though. Anyone can burn out, there is always the possibility of external factors like family, and he was definitely burning the candle from both ends.

I could very well be wrong, but it is my personal opinion he did not simply leave because he got tired of Lucid. My guess is there was disagreement or something else happened.

But that is definitely just a guess.

 

[borski]

I really think Napoli cut the powertrain R and D budget to cut costs. Emad didn’t like that, left. Right or wrong thing to do, nit sure. Just me speculating.

Did you make that up or do you have some kind of credible source? I know you said you’re speculating, but I just want to clarify so nobody takes it as fact.

 

[Leftlane]

I wonder how much of the comp packages for these execs were restricted stock units or options that are so severely underwater and the hope for a big payoff has vanished….its one thing to work tirelessly for the moonshot rewards but something else entirely if those potential rewards disappear or seem increasingly unlikely to pay off.

 

[socktucker]

I wonder how much of the comp packages for these execs were restricted stock units or options that are so severely underwater and the hope for a big payoff has vanished….its one thing to work tirelessly for the moonshot rewards but something else entirely if those potential rewards disappear or seem increasingly unlikely to pay off.

Probably a bunch, their President got his stock awards a few days ago and I’m sure isn’t thrilled with today’s price movement.

 

[gaskiller]

Did you make that up or do you have some kind of credible source? I know you said you’re speculating, but I just want to clarify so nobody takes it as fact.

Made that up, not fact

 

[illopp00]

Companies aren't planets orbiting the sun. They can, and do fail, all the time. Especially new ones. The dawn is not guaranteed.

Open communication with high level executives was great, and cheap marketing, for a still relatively new company. But then many of those publications and YouTubers were given buggy review units. Savagegeese had a video series about the making of Gravity but that only lasted 2 videos before the review, where they hammer Lucid over software issues. That review was 7 months ago.

Lucid has already cut back on their ambitions. With the Air, their self driving tech was supposed to be bespoke like Tesla and Rivian but now they're going to use nvidia's alphamayo for midsize.

I've already criticized Lucid enough for their midsize planning (if I was an investor, I'd actually be angry with their ridiculous segmentation and their corresponding ridiculous description of the buyers) but let's just look at their timeline when compared with their most similar competitor. The Rivian R2 was first revealed in 2024, and is now just being sold. The Cosmos is supposed to be revealed in the 2nd half of this year with sales beginning in 2027. The first prototypes were just spotted in public a couple of weeks ago. That seems like an incrediblly short time frame. How confident should anyone be that they can work out all the issues in less than a year of on-road testing?

How many resources had to be pulled from Cosmos/midsize to fix Gravity's poor launch and continuing issues?

The only skin in this game I have is that I want an 800v R2, and the Cosmos is probably the closest thing to it in the near future. But even though this company's slogan is "Compromise Nothing", I see compromises everywhere when they talk about the Cosmos.

Right I just checked, Throttle House's first drive of the Gravity video was released in Nov 2023 right after the LA Auto Show. It actually was in real production in June 2025. We just saw a prototype Cosmos driving around, although the investor reports indicated it seemed pretty close to ready outside the regular calibration testing. But there is a clear cultural issue in the company of overpromising and underdelivering, and then not surfacing early and pro-actively any critical issues, and then doing fire-fighting and perpetually rinse and repeating....

 

[gaskiller]

Probably a bunch, their President got his stock awards a few days ago and I’m sure isn’t thrilled with today’s price movement.

At least they are in the same boat as us other investors

 

[gaskiller]

Right I just checked, Throttle House's first drive of the Gravity video was released in Nov 2023 right after the LA Auto Show. It actually was in real production in June 2025. We just saw a prototype Cosmos driving around, although the investor reports indicated it seemed pretty close to ready outside the regular calibration testing. But there is a clear cultural issue in the company of overpromising and underdelivering, and then not surfacing early and pro-actively any critical issues, and then doing fire-fighting and perpetually rinse and repeating....

Didn’t some YouTubers see a prototype during Investor day a few months ago?

With Lucid habit of releasing good and bad news, maybe they will release and then dilute again

 

[illopp00]

Didn’t some YouTubers see a prototype during Investor day a few months ago?

With Lucid habit of releasing good and bad news, maybe they will release and then dilute again

They haven't learned that doesn't work, no amount of 'news' can fluff a stock nobody wants...

 

[dbsb3233]

I wonder how much of the comp packages for these execs were restricted stock units or options that are so severely underwater and the hope for a big payoff has vanished….its one thing to work tirelessly for the moonshot rewards but something else entirely if those potential rewards disappear or seem increasingly unlikely to pay off.

Yep. We always hear outrage about the ones that do well, but there's another side to that coin.

 

[drb3333]

Just a quick acknowledgement to Marqie. We are being pretty self-centered about our responses, but I guess that I realize you are feeling a lot of stress and disappointment about this news; hang in there. I think we all will after the complaining is done.

(Or even if Emad checks in here, just know you have all of our support which is what all of the comments distill down to.)

 

[borski]

They haven't learned that doesn't work, no amount of 'news' can fluff a stock nobody wants...

Or, as usual, people are ascribing meaning to chance.

Humans are a fascinating breed. Fortune tellers and stargazers will get nine things wrong and then say “I knew it!” on the tenth, as if those other nine events never occurred.

Humans tend to find meaning in things that are meaningless, because we are terrible tabulation machines when it comes to finding meaning in statistics.

This is the same reason people think the moon landing is faked.

So the “lucid loves to pair good and bad news” is almost certainly just that.

 

[borski]

Just a quick acknowledgement to Marqie. We are being pretty self-centered about our response, but I guess I realize you are feeling a lot of stress and disappointment about this news; hang in there. I think we all will after the complaining is done.

(Or even if Emad checks in here, just know you have all of our support which is what all of the comments distill down to.)

Amen. Thanks for reminding us these are humans involved, not just names.