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Lucid Motors gets rave reviews from critics. But it's sorely lacking customers. That's a problem the company can't afford. The Arizona-based EV maker has top-shelf tech, deep-pocketed backers, and highly praised cars. However, it has struggled to meet production targets, and has been unable to steal the spotlight away from established luxury brands with century-old pedigrees. Lucid is ramping up production of its high-end, three-row, Gravity SUV, though it has sold only a few hundred units so far in 2025. The Gravity's production ramp has faced a slew of challenges, primarily supply chain shortages. Yet the company already has plans for another vehicle aimed more at the middle of the market, where it would compete with the top-selling Tesla Model Y SUV. And it's investing in self-driving cars for consumers while working on a robotaxi fleet with Uber and self-driving tech maker Nuro.
A Lucid Gravity coming off the line at the company's factory in Casa Grande, Arizona
In the process, Lucid is burning through a lot of money. The company's third-quarter results were worse than Wall Street expected, with a net loss of close to $1 billion. "Their gross profit has been getting kind of worse," said Tom Narayan, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets. "A lot of people are doing the math. How long can the company keep losing cash?" Adding to its challenges is a tougher environment for all EV manufacturers. Demand has fallen short of expectations, and many automakers are pulling back. EVs have lost key support from the federal government, including a $7,500 tax credit, funding for charging, and restrictions on state level programs that incentivize automakers to produce zero-emission vehicles. A 'fantastic car' Lucid's first vehicle, a sedan call the Air, is the most popular vehicle in its segment, according to Cox Automotive. Through the third quarter, it was the third best-selling full-size luxury sedan, and the top selling electric one, according to the company. The Air is frequently a "critic's pick." No other EV can touch the 512-mile range of the Air Grand Touring, one of its top trim levels. Last year, Lucid delivered 10,241 vehicles, the majority of which were Air sedans, a 71% increase from 2023. U.S. EV leader Tesla delivered 1.8 million. Unfortunately, sedans have consistently compared to SUVs, crossovers, and pickups--which now all but dominate the roads. Of the top 10 best-selling models in the U.S., seven are from those three segments, according to Edmunds. "It was a fantastic car," said Sam Abuelsamid, vice president of market research for Telemetry. "It still is a fantastic car. But it came to market at kind of the wrong time."
Marc Winterhoff, interim chief executive officer of Lucid Group Inc., in a Lucid Air Grand Touring model in San Francisco, California, US, on Thursday, July 17, 2025. Jason Henry | Bloomberg | Getty Images
In 2023, Tesla's Model Y was the best-selling vehicle in the world, according to JATO Dynamics. It sold more than 265,000 units in the U.S. through the third quarter of 2024, according to Cox Automotive, about 100,000 more than the Model 3 sedan. Among EVs, the Model 3 is unusually popular for a sedan. Behind the two Tesla Models, the three vehicles that round out the top five are crossovers — Chevrolet Equinox, Ford Mustang Mach-E and Hyundai Ioniq5. The Model S, the Air's closest Tesla competitor in terms of size, performance, and price, sold just over 4,500 units in the same period. The highest volume EVs, such as the Model Y, are also less expensive than the Air, which starts just above $70,000 and runs up to about a quarter of a million dollars. The Model 3 is nearly half that. The average EV transaction price in November was just above $59,000, according to Cox Automotive. "There's just not enough of a market for those premium electric sedans right now," Abuelsamid said. Lucid sold slightly more than 300 Gravity SUVs in the US through the third quarter of 2025, according to Cox Automotive. Like the Air, the Gravity has a high price tag. Nevertheless, the company has said the Gravity stands to attract six times as many customers as the Air. "We'll see if that's the case," said Narayan. "The latest numbers I've seen show it kind of equalizing the sales of sedans." Lucid interim CEO Mark Winterhoff told CNBC in an interview that the company has seen "a very good uptick in demand when it comes to the Gravity as compared to the Air." He added that most customers are configuring the car in ways that run the price up above $100,000. Production trouble Demand might be strong, but Lucid also has to get the vehicle into customers' hands. Gravity's launch earlier in 2025 was beset by shortages of key materials like magnets, aluminum, and chips, Winterhoff said on the company's third-quarter earnings call. "We haven't been able to produce as many as we wanted up until this point," Winterhoff told CNBC. "We're very confident right now that we solved those problems." Deliveries have risen for seven straight quarters, culminating in a 47% percent jump over the third quarter of 2024. Lucid has added a second shift to the final assembly section of its factory to meet demand. The company said demand has been resilient despite worries the EV market is stalling after the federal EV incentive ended on Sept. 30. "In October, our delivery numbers went up," Winterhoff said. "Whereas in many other pure EV players or even EVs for incumbent players that also have [internal combustion] vehicles, the deliveries dropped down drastically."
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Still, analysts say it's a tougher time to make EVs than it was when Tesla was ramping up the Model 3 and Model Y. "They were the only game in town," Narayan said. "So there wasn't competition there. They also benefited from battery prices falling significantly. And they got a lot of government support. Today we're in a very different world." If gross profit does keep getting worse, the company will eventually have to return to investors, Narayan said. Lucid is currently about 55% owned by the Saudi Public Investment fund, according to FactSet. In the third quarter, Lucid and the PIF agreed to increase a delayed draw term loan credit facility from $750 million to roughly $2 billion. A DDTL is a loan the company can draw on over time, rather than all at once. That brings its total liquidity to $5.5 billion. The company has said it has enough to get through the first half of 2027.
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