Lucid Motors' production misses estimates as hopes ride on Gravity SUV

Lucid Motors announced its third-quarter results, showing a company pushing hard to increase output but still falling short of Wall Street's expectations. The California-based maker of luxury electric cars reported it produced 3,891 vehicles and delivered 4,078 to customers from July through September. While these figures represent growth compared to previous quarters, they missed the mark set by financial analysts.

Experts had predicted a stronger performance, forecasting Lucid would build around 5,175 vehicles and deliver approximately 4,286. The company noted that its production total does not include over 1,000 additional vehicles shipped as kits to its plant in Saudi Arabia for final assembly. That facility currently puts together partially-built cars but is ready for an upgrade to a full manufacturing plant by late 2026 to serve markets in the Middle East.

Despite the miss, deliveries did see an increase of 23% from the second quarter and 46% from the same period last year, helped in part by customers rushing to buy before a $7,500 federal tax credit for EVs expired.

With nine months of the year in the books, Lucid has produced a total of 9,966 electric cars and delivered 10,496. This puts the company in a tight spot as it races toward its year-end goal. In August, Lucid adjusted its 2025 production target, lowering it from 20,000 to a range of 18,000 to 20,000 units.

To reach even the low end of that new goal, the company must now build 8,034 EVs in the final three months of the year. That's more than double its output from the third quarter, a monumental task for any automaker. Interim CEO Marc Winterhoff stays optimistic, with the team apparently still aiming for the 20,000-unit mark.

This isn't the first time Lucid's ambitious goals have met a challenging reality. The company's past projections have been higher than its actual performance. In 2021, Lucid predicted it would deliver 49,000 cars in 2023 and 90,000 in 2024. The actual numbers were painfully lower, coming in at 6,001 and 10,241, respectively. This history of over-promising and under-delivering has made analysts cautious.

The key to Lucid's future success may be parked at its factory in Casa Grande, Arizona. The company is pinning its hopes on the Lucid Gravity, a large, three-row SUV. The Lucid Air sedan has won awards for its range and performance, but sedans are a shrinking slice of the car market. SUVs and trucks, on the other hand, are more popular than ever.

Lucid executives believe the Gravity SUV opens up a market six times larger than the one for the Air sedan. Recent drone footage showing more than 2,000 Gravity SUVs parked at the Arizona plant suggests that production is finally picking up after a slow start caused by supply chain problems, including a shortage of magnets from China.

To meet the challenge, Marc Winterhoff confirmed that a second manufacturing shift has been added to the factory to "finish 2025 strong." For customers interested in the new SUV, several configurations of the Gravity Grand Touring model are now listed as available within two weeks, with a starting price of $96,550 before fees.

The company is also betting on a high-profile advertising campaign featuring actor Timothée Chalamet to put the Gravity on the map. All eyes are on Lucid as it continues to navigate the tricky world of automotive manufacturing. Can the new SUV provide the lift it needs to reach its goals and compete with other electric cars?

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