Is the glass half full at Lucid, or is it half empty? It depends on who you ask. Speaking of that, just before their earnings call today, CEO Peter Rawlinson moved off that podium to become Strategic Technical Advisor to the Chairman of the Board. Rawlinson had also been the company’s chief technical advisor. COO Marc Winterhoff is now Interim CEO. So that’s already some drama. But, on the other hand, the company is expecting sales growth as the Gravity electric SUV gains traction.
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Lucid Has Money to Burn
From the glass-half-full perspective, Lucid has goosed sales by nearly double over 2023, to 10,241 vehicles in 2024. The carmaker says they’re targeting 20,000 cars in 2025. That’s feasible, especially with the debut of the Gravity SUV, and because Lucid has greatly improved its leasing strategy and its incentives, with the latter growing to an average of $15,561 per vehicle. Lucid is also in a unique position. According to the financial site the Motley Fool, the Saudi Arabian government owns more than 60 percent of Lucid shares through its Public Investment Fund. (FYI, PIF also owns a lot of shares of other companies you know, such as Meta, Doordash, and FedEx.)
That backing, and a stated excess of $6 billion in liquidity, enabled Lucid to construct manufacturing in Saudi Arabia, at a factory that began production 18 months ago, and the Saudis have a contract to purchase 100,000 cars stretched across a decade. Motley Fool speculates that that should give Lucid enough cushion to ride out a near-term tough financial market for EVs.
Industry Headwinds Remain
Glass emptier? As we reported on Rivian this past week, small electric car brands have to fight and claw for scale, so that eventually they have buying power for parts at far lower costs, and so that each car itself is cheaper to produce. Much like Rivian, Rawlinson has said publicly that Lucid would like the company to become a seller of IP, as Rivian is now doing with Volkswagen. But Winterhoff stressed that they’re not planning to become a majority technology company “and do cars on the side.”
Lucid Promises Mid-Size Cars in 2026
2025 Lucid Gravity
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Lucid Motors
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Gravity
New CEO Winterhoff said that design and engineering for the first two of three mid-sized EVs has already been approved. The first mid-sized cars will begin production in the latter half of 2026. Winterhoff said those designs will be revealed some time later this year, but meanwhile he also said that Lucid will release its own hands-free driving technology for both Air and Gravity. What Winterhoff was less clear about was exactly what the mix will be between Air and Gravity. Currently, he said that the Gravity is only selling at its very top tier, at roughly $120,000 per vehicle. Lucid, he said, will open orders for more approachably priced Gravity SUVs later this year, and that the expectation is that more buyers are going to opt for less expensive five-seat vs. seven-seat Gravity SUVs.
TopSpeed’s Take
Winterhoff said the carmaker will produce the new mid-sized crossover at both its Saudi Arabian plant and at its facility in Arizona, which at least takes some heat off of the impact of potential tariffs. However, the carmaker didn’t give any greater detail about why Rawlinson, a former Tesla engineer and head of Lucid since 2019, is stepping aside. While share prices bumped up in after-hours trading, thanks to the carmaker beating analysts’ estimates for the closing quarter, losing its pioneering leader begs a lot of questions that shareholders and potential car buyers probably still have. The cars are pretty amazing, with exceptional build quality. But the luxury EV marketplace is getting very competitive, and factors like dealer experience and company outreach are going to matter even more as Lucid increases sales.
