Emad Dlala, the chief executive of EV maker Lucid Motors, has left the company just months after being promoted to a key role, TechCrunch has revealed.
Dlala’s departure is the first major executive departure since Lucid Motors selected Silvio Napoli as its new CEO in April. Napoli joins Lucid after holding various leadership positions at escalator and elevator company Schindler Group. He officially began his CEO role last week.
In a statement to TechCrunch, Lucid Motors confirmed Dlala’s departure and said it is “transforming the organization to accelerate innovation and strengthen execution under the leadership of CEO Silvio Napoli.”
As part of the changes, Lucid Motors said the company’s vice president of vehicle engineering, Vivek Attaluri, and vice president of software, Marc Solsona Palomar, will now report directly to Napoli.
“Emad Dlala has decided to leave the company to pursue other opportunities. We appreciate Emad’s many contributions over the years and wish him continued success in his future endeavors. Lucid remains focused on streamlining our organization and processes to best leverage the strengths of our team and will communicate further actions shortly,” the company said in a statement.
Dlala declined to comment.
Dlala has been with Lucid Motors for more than 10 years, making him one of the company’s longest-serving employees and executives. For the past five years, he has been Vice President of Lucid Motors and Senior Vice President of the company’s powertrain team.
In November, he was promoted to a role overseeing all of “engineering and digital” at the same time Lucid Motors parted ways with longtime chief engineer Eric Bach. Bach later sued Lucid Motors for wrongful termination. But federal court records show the suit was recently pending arbitration.
The company has been in flux for several months since then. As TechCrunch first reported, Lucid Motors laid off 12% of its workforce in February. It then concluded its search for a new CEO after spending a year trying to replace Peter Rawlinson, who suddenly resigned in early 2025.
Dlala’s departure comes just months ahead of the launch of the first mass-market vehicle built on Lucid Motors’ midsize platform, the Cosmos. The EV is expected to start at under $50,000, finally giving the Saudi-owned company a chance to deliver a more affordable and widely adopted car.
This next-generation EV is now also the cornerstone of Lucid’s deal to provide robotaxi to Uber. Lucid Motors has agreed to develop a robotaxi with self-driving car company Nuro, starting with the Gravity SUV. The self-driving Gravity is scheduled to operate in San Francisco by the end of this year.
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