Lucid new CEO: Silvio Napoli

[prgarg]

I'll admit I was skeptical of Silvio. I wasn't expecting someone coming from vertical transportation to take on the helm on Lucid. However, after listening to the Bloomberg interview, I learned that he came from an engineering background.

His LinkedIn is also very impressive.
View attachment 38229

I'll admit, I'm biased. The Master's of Material Science got me, as I have previously done materials engineering before my current work in data science. Also seeing his experience with different regions in Shnidler gives perspective and experience on global supply chains.

Finally, there's him being part of Eaton's Board of Directors, where Eaton is involved in the following:
View attachment 38230

Seeing all this experience, I'm now quite optimistic for Silvio, and I wish him all the best in Lucid!

I found the Bloomberg interview to be both uninspired and rough. But I do agree his resume is impressive

 

[EVCar]

I'll admit I was skeptical of Silvio. I wasn't expecting someone coming from vertical transportation to take on the helm on Lucid. However, after listening to the Bloomberg interview, I learned that he came from an engineering background.

His LinkedIn is also very impressive.
View attachment 38229

Fulbright scholar is a big deal in my book.

 

[Green G]

The experience in service provision at Schindler was with customers which were companies. I don’t believe that they sell directly to individuals or that it focuses on that segment.

At Lucid he will be in charge of customer experience in a D2C company. The expectations may be different but hopefully the mindset will govern the outcome for the better focusing on software improvement.

 

[tmichael]

The experience in service provision at Schindler was with customers which were companies. I don’t believe that they sell directly to individuals or that it focuses on that segment.

At Lucid he will be in charge of customer experience in a D2C company. The expectations may be different but hopefully the mindset will govern the outcome for the better focusing on software improvement.

The building owner may be Schindler's customer, however the impact is directly on the end user. If my office building elevator is out, I don't curse the owner - I curse the company who made the elevator. I believe he understands the manufacturer takes the reputational hit from the customer.

 

[nashvillelucid]

The experience in service provision at Schindler was with customers which were companies. I don’t believe that they sell directly to individuals or that it focuses on that segment.

At Lucid he will be in charge of customer experience in a D2C company. The expectations may be different but hopefully the mindset will govern the outcome for the better focusing on software improvement.

Lucid’s opportunity is much bigger with sales to companies. An order for 35,000 vehicles to Uber dwarf’s last year’s total sales. If he can deepen that relationship and find other opportunities that will be a big deal to Lucid.

I hope they can balance that with their consumer business.

 

[Green G]

The building owner may be Schindler's customer, however the impact is directly on the end user. If my office building elevator is out, I don't curse the owner - I curse the company who made the elevator. I believe he understands the manufacturer takes the reputational hit from the customer.

Point well taken.
However, you are not going to pick up the phone and call the elevator company; you will call the office manager who with repetitive complaints will decide to go with Otis in his next building if Schindler has poor products and/or service.

 

[Green G]

Lucid’s opportunity is much bigger with sales to companies. An order for 35,000 vehicles to Uber dwarf’s last year’s total sales. If he can deepen that relationship and find other opportunities that will be a big deal to Lucid.

I hope they can balance that with their consumer business.

I didn’t think of that aspect. Thank you for pointing that out.
As a customer (n=1), I still hope that the customer facing aspect of software improvement gets addressed better. I acknowledge that that is a “conditio sine qua non” when developing autonomous vehicles for Uber and alike.

 

[tmichael]

Point well taken.
However, you are not going to pick up the phone and call the elevator company; you will call the office manager who with repetitive complaints will decide to go with Otis in his next building if Schindler has poor products and/or service.

agree. But, Schindler (Lucid) has good products - it's the office manager (Erwin Raphael) who will be replaced, due to the building tenants (Lucid owners) complaining to the building owner (Napoli).

In my dreams, anyway....

 

[prgarg]

Point well taken.
However, you are not going to pick up the phone and call the elevator company; you will call the office manager who with repetitive complaints will decide to go with Otis in his next building if Schindler has poor products and/or service.

I doubt many people know what brand the elevator in their apartment or office building is

 

[Pragmatic]

Lots of people acting as CEO's. They've hired people now let them do their job. Management has better idea (or should) of what's going on than a car owner far removed from company management.

 

[tmichael]

I'll stop beating the drum - after this...

As Senior Vice President of Revenue, Erwin oversees Lucid’s global sales and service operations across North America, Europe and the Middle East, as well as Lucid’s customer experience and worldwide retail footprint.​

(Italics and underline added by me.)

How is he doing at his job?

End of rant. Drumming stops.

 

[sri]

At this rate Lucid only needs three more weeks to go to 0
Lucid common show us Cosmos before you die

 

[LucidfanAZ]

Elevator guy is going to take Lucid to the next level!!

 

[sri]

Elevator guy is going to take Lucid to the next level!!

For now Elevator is going to Level 0

 

[socktucker]

So basically he retired from 30 years at Schindler, he’s in his mid 60s, and Lucid recruited him for…what? To run the company for 4-5 years? Or to wind it down after the Atlas rolls out.

 

[RajD]

So basically he retired from 30 years at Schindler, he’s in his mid 60s, and Lucid recruited him for…what? To run the company for 4-5 years? Or to wind it down after the Atlas rolls out.

I’m not impressed with this choice. It injects exactly zero excitement or vision into Lucid’s brand. And Lucid really needs to execute better on software primarily, not hardware- does he have any experience in improving or building this? Does Lucid believe they already have the team needed for this in house already? It doesn’t seem like they’re well positioned for that at all.

Lucid’s brand is in the toilet right now. And by virtue of a more than 10% drop on the stock price since he was announced, it seems the markets thinks this is a nothing hire.

 

[Lucidicrous]

Generally, consultants excel at generating ideas but often struggle to translate them into scalable operations within large enterprises. Silvio’s 30 years at a single company with billions in revenue demonstrate his ability to institutionalize strategies effectively—something many “C-suite” executives fail to sustain, often lasting less than five years before being exposed. That experience gives me confidence that Silvio truly understands how organizations work. Moreover, graduating from Harvard and being named a Fulbright scholar speak to both his intellect and discipline; achievements seldom reached by ordinary individuals.

 

[gaskiller]

I'll admit I was skeptical of Silvio. I wasn't expecting someone coming from vertical transportation to take on the helm on Lucid. However, after listening to the Bloomberg interview, I learned that he came from an engineering background.

His LinkedIn is also very impressive.
View attachment 38229

I'll admit, I'm biased. The Master's of Material Science got me, as I have previously done materials engineering before my current work in data science. Also seeing his experience with different regions in Shnidler gives perspective and experience on global supply chains.

Finally, there's him being part of Eaton's Board of Directors, where Eaton is involved in the following:
View attachment 38230

Seeing all this experience, I'm now quite optimistic for Silvio, and I wish him all the best in Lucid!

With EV transition, CEO with expertise with ICE transport is a bad decision. You can see how ICE manufacturers are having problems with transition.

Silvio might be the perfect choice. He was with Schneider for 30 years. Didn’t ditch and move from company to company.

 

[BS8899]

I'll stop beating the drum - after this...

As Senior Vice President of Revenue, Erwin oversees Lucid’s global sales and service operations across North America, Europe and the Middle East, as well as Lucid’s customer experience and worldwide retail footprint.​

(Italics and underline added by me.)

How is he doing at his job?

End of rant. Drumming stops.

First, I've never paid attention to, and I never knew the name Erwin Raphael. As such, I don't have an impression on the person per se.

You might have seen from my recent posting that my own (dis) satisfaction about Lucid and my concerns about Lucid's future and its ability to be competitive in the high-volume, lower margin, mass-market mid-size. And Lucid is at least a year behind its competitors with respect to its mid-market entries.

Fans of Lucid, including a good percentage on this site, seem to think Lucid is doing rather well. The recent survey, as analyzed by @borski, suggests the "satisfaction poll" has a mode of "9", suggesting the vast majority of the participants in this forum responding to the survey gave Lucid a thumb-up. Granted that not that many readers actually participated in the survey.

Historically, Lucid was founded and ran by geeks. In that universe, Lucid owners treat their products (Air/Gravity), while annoying, are features, not bugs. It is "an artistic engineering tour-de-force". As Lucid tries to tackle a larger, less "Geek-tolerant" market, the landscape will likely be different.

With respect to service, I personally don't have problems with Lucid service. First, I don't raise SW issues with the SC. They can't do anything about buggy poorly validated codes! Second, I don't waste my time calling or trying to contact service online and waiting days for an answer. I just drove 4 miles down the road, without an appointment, and walk into to the SC and talk to the SC-advisors. They have all been very helpful. I understand that most Lucid customers are not able to follow what I do, and their experience with the SC are likely different.

To me, the bigger question is whether Lucid is ready for the coming couple of years of ramping Gravity and (flawlessly) introducing TWO mid-market entries into a price-sensitive/service intensive/low-tolerance to bugs market, 1-2 years later than its competitors. Would Napoli and his team be up to the task?

 

[gaskiller]

I’m not impressed with this choice. It injects exactly zero excitement or vision into Lucid’s brand. And Lucid really needs to execute better on software primarily, not hardware- does he have any experience in improving or building this? Does Lucid believe they already have the team needed for this in house already? It doesn’t seem like they’re well positioned for that at all.

Lucid’s brand is in the toilet right now. And by virtue of a more than 10% drop on the stock price since he was announced, it seems the markets thinks this is a nothing hire.

Completely and vehemently disagree. You don’t need a hype CEO or CEO from traditional transport. The latter are mostly clueless about EV transition