Beleaguered electric vehicle company Lucid Motors (LCID) said this week that its reverse stock split, which will consolidate shares to meet NASDAQ’s $1 minimum trading price, is not a move to avoid being delisted.
As of Friday, Lucid’s share price was down over 96% from its all-time high of $64.86, reached in February 2021. Its stock has dropped 48% since this time last year and 31% in 2025. One analyst changed their price target as much as 30% after the split was announced.
“LCID’s 2Q25 revenue modestly beat our forecast, while gross profit and adjusted EBITDA were below our projections,” Stifel analyst Stephen Gengaro wrote in a note to investors Friday explaining the cut to $2.10 from $3.“We continue to be big believers in LCID’s technology, and view the Air and Gravity as excellent products,” Gengaro wrote. “However, we expect additional capital to be required over the next few years, and we are awaiting clarity on Gravity sales and the rollout of the midsize.”
Wall Street media have met the stock plan with the theory that the move was an attempt to avoid delisting on the exchange, but on Monday the company pushed back against that.
“Our 1-for-10 reverse stock split was a mechanical step to broaden access for institutional investors and reduce trading volatility,” Nick Twork, vice president of communications, told Gizmodo. He added that any idea that it was to avoid being delisted was false.
Chief Financial Officer Taoufiq Boussaid has also said the move “is not a cosmetic action” on the company’s Q2 earnings call.
“This is a deliberate and targeted measure to ensure Lucid’s equity remains accessible to a broader universe of long-only institutional investors,” Boussaid said, according to Twork, who reposted the his explanation on X. “It also aligns our share price with the strategic trajectory of the company as we move into the next chapter of scaling our operations and deepening our capital markets engagement.”
What is Lucid’s long game?
Still, whatever purpose the the stock maneuver is for strategically, it does little to address the underlying issues plaguing the struggling electric vehicle maker.
Founded in 2014 by former Tesla (TSLA) engineer Peter Rawlinson, Lucid initially aimed to compete in the luxury EV segment with its flagship Air sedan, positioned as a premium rival to Tesla’s Model S.
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