New registrations of the Lucid Air model in the United States increased recently, which indicates some improvement in sales.
According to the registration data from Experian (via Automotive News), 478 new Lucid Air were registered in August (up 40 percent year-over-year), which brings the total from January to August to 4,267. It also means that August was noticeably above the eight-month average.
We guess that Lucid was able to increase sales through some price cuts that were applied earlier this year. Registration data lags behind sales/deliveries by at least several weeks but can be used as a proxy of sales.
Experian's data indicates that during the first eight months of the year, Lucid noted a slightly lower number of registrations than the Porsche Taycan (4,505), taking the 18th position among 27 brands that offer all-electric cars. For reference, Genesis noted 3,525 registrations during the period.
New data about production and deliveries during the third quarter of 2023 should be available later this month. In the second quarter, Lucid delivered 1,404 cars, but that's a global number.
The updated production volume guidance for the full year 2023 is "more than 10,000 vehicles" (reduced from 10,000-14,000). After the first half of the year, the company produced just under 4,500 cars, while delivering 2,810.
In the near future, Lucid Air might be boosted by two new versions of the car that launched in October. First is the entry-level Lucid Air Pure (rear-wheel drive), which starts at an MSRP of $78,900. The second one is the top-of-the-line Lucid Air Sapphire - customer deliveries already started. We guess that with a quarter-million dollar price tag, the Sapphire might not bring a significant volume increase but it might improve margins.
An interesting new endeavor for Lucid was the recent launch of a small assembly plant in Saudi Arabia. Let's recall that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund has a controlling stake in Lucid. Only time will tell whether it will substantially help to expand production and sales globally.
The plant in Arizona remains the main site for Lucid, while its main product might be the upcoming Lucid Gravity SUV (SUVs usually sell better than sedans, which Mercedes-Benz has recently proven).
