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Investing.com -- Lucid Group (NASDAQ:LCID) announced on Tuesday that CEO Peter Rawlinson is stepping down after more than five years in the role. The company also projected that vehicle production will more than double this year.
Lucid shares plunged more than 8% in premarket trading Wednesday. The stock initially rose as much as 10%, before seeing a sharp reversal.
Rawlinson, who has been with Lucid for 12 years, played a key role in launching the Air models and guiding the company through its public listing. He will be succeeded on an interim basis by Chief Operating Officer Marc Winterhoff.
Lucid said Rawlinson would stay on at Lucid as a Strategic Technical Advisor to the Chairman of the Board.
"Now that we have successfully launched the Lucid Gravity, I have decided it is finally the right time for me to step aside from my roles at Lucid," Rawlinson said.
The automaker recently appointed Taoufiq Boussaid as chief financial officer. A seasoned finance executive, Boussaid previously worked on reducing debt for his former employer.
Bank of America downgraded Lucid stock to Underperform from Neutral following the announcement of Rawlinson’s departure. They believe his exit "is much more consequential than understood by the market."
"We now expect product development to stall, consumer demand to be dampened, and anticipate additional funding opportunities could be put at risk," analysts led by John Murphy added.
BofA also slashed its Lucid price target to $1 from $3.
Alongside the leadership change, Lucid said it expects to produce around 20,000 vehicles in 2025, up from roughly 9,000 cars in 2024.
Still, the company continues to lose tens of thousands of dollars per vehicle, while competitors like Rivian (NASDAQ:RIVN) push to lower costs and achieve profitability.
The carmaker reported fourth-quarter revenue of $234.5 million, surpassing Wall Street’s expectation of $214.2 million, according to LSEG data.
Its quarterly net loss narrowed to $397.2 million from $653.8 million a year earlier.
Lucid produced 3,386 vehicles during Q4 and delivered 3,099 vehicles during the same period, better than analyst expectations.
Stifel analysts said they view Lucid’s Q4 results "as positive for the shares."
"While we are unsure of the specific reasons behind CEO Peter Rawlinson stepping aside, we believe the company’s momentum appears to be building," they added.