Rawlinson selling nearly 8,000,000 shares was planned well in advance. He's not jumping ship as Lucid critics would hope.
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In the latest example of people spreading fear, uncertainty, and doubt about Lucid, TSLA enthusiast Warren Redlich shared an SEC filing which shows that CEO Peter Rawlinson recently offloaded LCID shares worth more than $160 million. Mr. Redlich believes Lucid is a scam, and has previously accused the EV manufacturer of lying about the size of the battery packs in the Lucid Air, installing packs larger than the claimed 118 kWh to achieve the Air's record-breaking 520-mile range.
Form 4
Rawlinson filed Form 4 with the SEC on March 9th, disclosing the sale of 7,981,919 LCID shares. If Rawlinson was indeed offloading shares to cash out and reduce his stake in Lucid this would be bad news, but as WCCF Tech reports, the whole thing was planned in July 2021.
The sale was planned to satisfy Rawlinson's tax obligations as a result of the vesting of Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) which are stocks given to an employee by a company with ownership being transferred upon completion of a predetermined goal, or in this case, on a time-based schedule.
Fire Up Your Keyboards
Warren's tweet sparked a healthy and measured debate on Twitter, with some noting what a novelty it is for the CEO of a large EV manufacturer to pay taxes. Others speculated that Rawlinson was selling the shares to free up some cash so he could buy TSLA stock, or that the sale went through because "Lucid has a high stake in RUSSIA." The mind boggles.
LCID has been having a rough go of it recently, with production targets for 2022 cut from 20,000 vehicles to somewhere between 12,000 and 14,000. In brighter news, Lucid's reservations are up to 25,000 units as of the recent Q4 earnings call, and the Air continues to receive extremely positive press from journalists and reviewers.
Which side do you come down on? Do you think Rawlinson's sale was made to satisfy tax obligations, or is the Lucid Motors CEO secretly funding Russia's invasion of Ukraine? Tin foil hats at the ready.
In other news: Porsche Taycan Production Halted Amid Parts Shortages Caused By Russian Invasion Of Ukraine
Cover image by Lucid Motors licensed by CC BY 2.0.
James Walker is an automotive journalist at Torque News focusing on Lucid Motors. If it's got wheels he's interested, and he's looking forward to seeing what kind of cars the EV revolution brings us. Whether it's fast, slow, new, or old, James wants to have a look around it and share it in print and on video, ideally with some twisty roads involved. You can connect with James on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
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