Peter Rawlinson, winner of Autocar’s 2025 Sturmey Award for innovation, is one of a small, distinguished crop of British engineers who have honed their skills working in challenging automotive careers at home, then risen to stellar status by taking charge of globally significant projects in other countries.
Although the serious car electrification era is barely two decades old, Rawlinson is already well established as one of its principal players. He was the inspiration – ‘chief engineer’ sounds too staid – first the Tesla Model S and then the Lucid Air, arguably the two most influential EVs of the past 20 years.
The Tesla, launched in 2012, is the first electric car to have achieved genuine global sales success. It did this by basing its appeal on progressive design and practical capability, and, most important of all, pioneering the use of energy-dense lithium-ion batteries.
The Lucid Air is the Model S’s spiritual successor a dozen years on, offering new forms of EV efficiency that cut dramatically its dependence on fat, heavy and expensive batteries.
The Air is the first of a planned range of Lucid models, the most significant of which is scheduled to be a Volkswagen Golf-sized design, two years away, that will combine affordability with long range.
Rawlinson says he recently signed off the major elements of this potential winner but won’t now be leading from the front; he was recently replaced as CEO but continues to advise the creative teams he built.
Rawlinson was brought up in South Wales, where he demonstrated his engineering skills early on by designing his own toys, which his handyman father made at home. He describes himself as “a country bumpkin”, but nevertheless he headed fearlessly into central London and Imperial College for his education in engineering.
Join the debate
Add your comment
I wish Lucid would back down from saying how light weight the Air model is, especially when compared to the 13 year old model S. The Lucid tested by Autocar came in at 2400kg the heaviest fastest Model S weighs in at 2200kg, yes the Air might go further but it's also 200kg HEAVIER. That's not progress or lighter.
Not true - try comparing equivalent 2025 models