Lucid Keeps Auto Industry’s Strong Sales Results Rolling

by Michael Strong | April 9, 2024

Nascent EV maker Lucid Motors reported its first-quarter deliveries were up 40% compared with the year-ago period. The increase mirrored strong electric vehicle sales across the industry, except for top-selling Tesla.

Lucid reported deliveries of 1,967 Air sedans during the first quarter of 2024 — a 40% increase.

The startup reported deliveries of 1,967 Air sedans during the first quarter of 2024. It produced 1,728 vehicles during the period. Currently it only produces different variations of the Air sedan. It’s preparing to build its Gravity SUV next.

The rise in sales was tied to the company’s push to follow the pack, cutting prices by as much as 10% and adding incentives to lure new buyers — and it worked. In fact, it’s still offering incentives on its new Air sedan.

According to the Lucid website, certain buyers can get 2.99 percent financing for up to 72 months on a loan or a $649 per month lease with $3,149 due at signing. Lucid is also offering a $5,000 discount on some inventory models through April 30 and a $1,000 credit to purchase home charging equipment.

Sales of Lucid’s Air sedan have been slowing – but the EV maker hopes to rebuild momentum when the Gravity crossover goes into production later this year.

Just like the others

Lucid’s not alone in trying to entice buyers to their showrooms — physical or virtual.

Ford has seen sales of the Mustang Mach-E, turn around. It did it in quite normal fashion by cutting price and discounting product heavily, especially after it lost part of its federal tax credit in January.

Nissan also cut prices as much as $3,600 on the Ariya in March looking to spur sales. Rivian also cut prices during the first quarter as did Tesla.

Tesla leading the way

The market’s general EV price decline has been led in part by the two most popular EVs in the U.S. – the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y. Transaction prices for the Model Y in March, estimated at $49,363, were the lowest on record and were lower versus February 2023 by 16.2%.

Tesla did raise prices on the Model Y by $1,000 on April 1, but then offered massive discounts on its vehicles just a few days later.

Several automakers cut prices on EVs, including Nissan with the Ariya, looking to draw more buyers.

Some versions of the Model Y rear-wheel drive can be had with reductions as much as $7,520.

The long-range and performance Model Ys are discounted by at least $5,000. These discounts are before any federal or state tax credits are applied. The rear-wheel drive Model 3 is also down as much as $4,000. A dual motor, all-wheel Model S demo model has received a more than $8,200 discount.

Lucid beat expectations

Not only did it outperform the year-ago results, but it beat analysts’ estimates of 1,745 vehicles, according to eight analysts polled by Visible Alpha. It beat its fourth quarter 2023 numbers too.

However, the number of vehicles built fell short of the 2,123 estimated for Q1 and 2023’s Q4, when it built 2,391 vehicles. Lucid will report its Q1 earnings results May 6.