🚨 Lucid Motors: A Brand on Borrowed Time

Folks, let’s get real. Lucid Motors strutted into the electric car ballroom promising to be the belle of the EV ball. They brought us the Lucid Air—a sleek, pricey sedan with fancy dashboards and big range claims. Now they’ve rolled out the Gravity SUV, hoping to grab fat profits in the premium crossover segment. But at $71,000 to $100,000 a pop, these cars are priced like Rolexes in a Casio world.

🔍 The Shiny but Shallow Lucid Brand

Under the hood? Sure, Lucid touts a 500-mile range. That’s nice. But beyond that, what does this brand really stand for? No distinctive design language. No breakthrough tech. No cult following. Meanwhile, Tesla is gobbling the market, with buyers lining up for everything from the Model 3 to the Cybertruck. Lucid looks like Tesla’s cautious little cousin—pretty, but without the swagger.

🏢 Who Really Owns Lucid? (Hint: It’s Not California)

Want to know who keeps this luxury EV fantasy afloat? Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). That’s right. The House of Saud. They’ve shoveled roughly $8 billion into Lucid and now own around 75% of the company. This isn’t Silicon Valley dream money—this is oil money trying to hedge its bets.

If the Saudis wake up tomorrow and decide they’d rather buy more Tesla stock (and who could blame them?), Lucid’s toast.

💵 Bleeding Cash Like an Open Wound

Let’s talk numbers—Lucid’s favorite subject until you look past the press releases. They lose hundreds of millions every quarter. In August 2024, they needed a fresh $1.5 billion cash transfusion from PIF just to keep the Gravity rolling off the line into late 2025.

They’re not anywhere close to turning a profit. Remove the Saudi ATM and Lucid is done. Bankruptcy. Chapter 7. Goodbye.

🚗 Tiny Production, Titanic Competition

In 2024, Lucid managed to deliver just over 10,000 vehicles. Tesla does that by lunch on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Hyundai and GM are scaling up EVs at breakneck speed, building vast dealer networks and service facilities—things Lucid barely has.

And don’t forget Tesla’s Superchargers and autonomous software. Lucid’s tech? It’s basically a big battery, a long range, and some leather seats.

🆘 Tax Credits or Bust

Marc Winterhoff, Lucid’s interim CEO, recently made a cringe-worthy plea to Washington: “Please keep the $7,500 EV tax credits alive for us little guys!” Translation: without government handouts, their business model collapses. Senate proposals might chop these subsidies in six months. If that happens, Lucid’s already wobbly sales pipeline dries up.

⚠️ The Ugly Used Car Reality

Lucid’s mostly a lease game. Why? Because leasing let customers indirectly pocket the tax credits. But used Lucids? They're already facing grim resale values. Soft demand, no big service network, and an uncertain brand future. Who pays $60,000 for a used luxury EV when they can snag a new Tesla—or anything else—with a service center nearby?

🤔 How Long Before the Saudis Pull the Plug?

PIF’s history? They pulled back on Uber. They cut back on global real estate. Vision 2030 moonshots are fun until the returns go south. They could decide it’s smarter to buy a tiny slice more of Tesla, watch that stock surge, and stop lighting cigars with stacks of Lucid stock certificates.

📉 Lucid: A Luxury Footnote in the Making

At the end of the day, Lucid is a cautionary tale: a pretty car, a slick story, but zero staying power without endless foreign billions and U.S. taxpayer largesse. When one of those runs dry—and they will—Lucid’s stock will circle the drain toward $2, delisting, and then get parked in the same dusty garage as DeLorean and Fisker.

So enjoy the showroom while it lasts. Because Lucid Motors is living on borrowed time.