Lucid Motors set an organization report for deliveries within the first quarter of 2025, transport 3,109 EVs to prospects in North America, Europe, and Saudi Arabia. It seems that a brand new firm automotive program and gross sales to rental fleets helped it get there.
In keeping with a footnote in Lucid Motors’ newest regulatory submitting, it offered the equal of round 300 vehicles to what it refers to as “rental corporations” within the quarter. Nick Twork, a spokesperson for Lucid Motors, stated in an e-mail that regardless of the usage of the time period, the “overwhelming majority” of the automobiles referred to within the footnote have been offered to leasing corporations and leased again to the automaker as a part of a revamped firm automotive program.
“As a part of the traditional course of enterprise, we leverage fleet transactions each time we see a great alternative that’s in the perfect curiosity of our enterprise,” he stated.
The primary-quarter gross sales to leasing and rental corporations allowed Lucid Motors to beat the variety of vehicles it delivered within the fourth quarter of 2024 by 100 automobiles, marking the fifth consecutive quarter that the corporate’s deliveries elevated. That is even though the start of the calendar 12 months is usually a tricky stretch for automotive gross sales; trade leaders Tesla and Rivian, as an example, every noticed dramatic drops in deliveries to begin the 12 months.
Lucid’s stretch of report quarters follows years of the corporate struggling to ascertain a marketplace for its luxurious sedan, the Air. The corporate has pinned excessive hopes on its first SUV, the Gravity, which it expects to ship in better volumes within the second half of this 12 months.
Interim CEO Marc Winterhoff celebrated the milestone in the beginning of the corporate’s earnings name final week. “A lot of our prospects proceed to inform us that after they expertise a Lucid, it’s onerous to return,” he stated.
Parsing the numbers
It’s tough to say precisely what number of vehicles Lucid has offered to leasing and rental corporations. The corporate declined to interrupt down the numbers made obtainable in its regulatory filings. Thus far, it has solely reported the greenback worth of automobiles offered on this manner.
Lucid stated within the first-quarter submitting that it offered $27.2 million price of automobiles to “rental corporations” within the first quarter. Dividing Lucid’s income for the quarter ($235 million) by the deliveries (3,109) suggests the corporate’s common promoting worth within the interval might be round $75,590, which means it offered as many as round 360 EVs to rental and leasing corporations.
Regardless of the precise quantity, it appears to be an uptick. For reference, the corporate wrote that it offered $34.7 million price of vehicles to rental corporations in all of 2024. In a previous submitting, Lucid stated it offered $9.1 million price in 2023.
Whereas the gross sales could have helped the quarter’s supply tally, they don’t seem to have had an impression on how a lot cash the corporate made.
Lucid says elsewhere within the regulatory submitting that it doesn’t instantly ebook income on the vehicles it sells to rental corporations as a result of it’s obligated to repurchase these automobiles at a later date. Lucid solely books income at that time — and even then, it solely books the distinction between the preliminary sale worth and a repurchase worth agreed upon with the rental corporations as income.
It’s no secret Lucid has been working with rental corporations. The corporate introduced in October 2024 that Germany-based Sixt was beginning to use Lucid Airs in its fleet of rental automobiles. It additionally has a take care of Enterprise that has been much less publicized. However till the most recent regulatory submitting, it’s been onerous to quantify how a lot impression the rental gross sales have been having on Lucid’s total supply figures.
Assessing the client demand for Lucid’s automobiles is essential as a result of the corporate’s first EV, the Air, has struggled to reside as much as expectations for a variety of causes. The corporate began promoting the Air in 2021 at a time when sedans had fallen out of vogue in North America. Lucid initially targeted on the most costly variations of the Air throughout the primary two years of gross sales.
As these gross sales slowly climbed, Tesla started slashing costs by itself automobiles in an effort to keep up the expansion it had promised Wall Avenue. These worth cuts induced a domino impact for different automakers promoting EVs. By the point Lucid began transport essentially the most inexpensive model of its sedan — the Air Pure — in late 2023, it made a number of worth cuts to maintain gross sales aggressive.
Former CEO Peter Rawlinson — who was changed earlier this 12 months after he stepped down from the function — stated in 2023 that “[t]oo few individuals are conscious of not simply the automotive, however even the corporate.”
Winterhoff, the interim CEO, has stated since he took over that he needs to beef up Lucid’s advertising and marketing efforts. The corporate spent $3.5 million on gross sales and advertising and marketing within the first quarter, and on final week’s name he stated buyers ought to anticipate that to extend.
