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 automobile program and gross sales to rental fleets helped it get there.
In accordance with a footnote in Lucid Motors’ latest regulatory filing, it offered the equal of round 300 vehicles to what it refers to as “rental firms” within the quarter. Nick Twork, a spokesperson for Lucid Motors, mentioned 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 firms and leased again to the automaker as a part of a revamped firm automobile program.
“As a part of the conventional course of enterprise, we leverage fleet transactions each time we see a great alternative that’s in the most effective curiosity of our enterprise,” he mentioned.
The primary-quarter gross sales to leasing and rental firms 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 supposing the start of the calendar yr is commonly a troublesome stretch for automotive gross sales; Trade chief Tesla and Rivian, for example, every noticed dramatic drops in deliveries to begin the yr.
Lucid’s stretch of report quarters follows years of the corporate struggling to determine 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 yr.
Interim CEO Marc Winterhoff celebrated the milestone originally of the corporate’s earnings name final week. “Lots of our prospects proceed to inform us that when they expertise a Lucid, it’s exhausting to return,” he mentioned.
Parsing the numbers
It’s tough to say precisely what number of vehicles Lucid has offered to leasing and rental firms. The corporate declined to interrupt down the numbers made accessible in its regulatory filings; Up to now, it has solely reported the greenback worth of automobiles offered on this manner.
Lucid mentioned within the first-quarter submitting that it offered $27.2 million price of automobiles to “rental firms” within the first quarter. Dividing Lucid’s income for the quarter ($235 million) by the deliveries (3,109) suggests the corporate’s common promoting value within the interval could possibly be round $75,590, which suggests it offered as many as round 360 EVs to rental and leasing firms.
Regardless of the actual quantity, it appears to be an uptick. For reference, the corporate wrote that it offered $34.7 million price of vehicles to rental firms in all of 2024. In a previous filing, Lucid mentioned 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 affect 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 firms 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 value and a repurchase value agreed upon with the rental firms as income.
It’s no secret Lucid has been working with rental firms. The corporate introduced in October 2024 that Germany-based Sixt was starting to use Lucid Airs in its fleet of rental automobiles. It additionally has a cope with Enterprise that has been much less publicized. However till the most recent regulatory submitting it’s been exhausting to quantify how a lot affect the rental gross sales have been having on Lucid’s total supply figures.
Assessing the shopper 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 quite a lot of causes. The corporate began promoting the Air in 2021 at a time when sedans had fallen out of style in North America. Lucid initially centered on the costliest 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 take care of the expansion it had promised Wall Avenue. These value cuts triggered 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 value cuts to maintain gross sales aggressive.
Former CEO Peter Rawlinson – who was changed earlier this yr after he stepped down from the function – said in 2023 that “[t]oo few persons are conscious of not simply the automobile, however even the corporate.”
Winterhoff, the interim CEO, has mentioned 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 mentioned traders ought to count on that to extend.