In the third quarter, Lucid Motors reached a new milestone by delivering 4,078 vehicles, a figure likely boosted by increased Gravity SUV shipments and a surge of buyers eager to secure the soon-to-expire federal EV tax incentive.
Although the luxury electric vehicle company, backed by Saudi investors, remains far from the ambitious targets it set during its 2021 public debut—which brought in $4 billion—Lucid Motors has experienced a steady rise in deliveries over the past two years. The numbers shared on Monday represent the seventh quarter in a row of growing sales for the company.
Lucid Motors was not the only automaker to see a significant uptick in EV sales during the third quarter. Tesla achieved its highest quarterly sales ever, while established brands such as Ford and General Motors also posted notable gains. Even Rivian, which anticipates a weaker year for total EV deliveries compared to 2023 and 2024, experienced a third-quarter boost.
As with Rivian, only Lucid Motors customers who opted to lease their vehicles qualified for the federal EV tax credit, making it difficult to assess the full effect of the credit’s expiration. The company has also not specified how many Gravity SUVs were delivered versus its original Air sedan. Lucid Motors is set to disclose complete financial results for the quarter on November 5.
Since its 2021 IPO, Lucid Motors has faced challenges in attracting buyers for its premium EVs, with former CEO Peter Rawlinson candidly acknowledging the need to strengthen the company’s marketing efforts. Earlier this year, Lucid announced that actor Timothée Chalamet would serve as its inaugural “global ambassador.” The company has also seen some quarters benefit from rental and corporate lease sales, as previously reported by TechCrunch.
The automaker is increasingly focusing on Saudi Arabia—whose sovereign wealth fund holds about 60% of Lucid’s publicly traded shares—as a key market. On Monday, Lucid Motors revealed it had produced over 1,000 vehicles specifically for Saudi customers. (Lucid currently operates an assembly plant in the Kingdom and has plans to establish a full-scale factory there.)
Lucid has also secured future orders from an unexpected partner: Uber.
Last month, Uber shared its intention to purchase a minimum of 20,000 Gravity SUVs over the next six years, deploying them as autonomous taxis within its network. For this partnership, Lucid Motors will collaborate to incorporate Nuro’s self-driving technology into the vehicles.
