Lucid takes Air sedan on 42-city tour to boost sales

Lucid's Air sedan has been showered with awards for its 500-mile range and sports-car performance, but orders aren't meeting expectations. Lucid is now going on a 42-city pop-up tour to find new buyers.

CEO Peter Rawlinson said the electric vehicle isn't the issue.

"We've got the best car in the world and not enough people know about it," Rawlinson said on an earnings call in February. "That is an entirely solvable problem."

The Dream Ahead Tour started mid-April with four stops in Florida and will finish in mid-November in Dallas, according to Lucid. The pop-ups will offer test drives and information about Lucid's proprietary EV technologies. The Air sedan holds the U.S. record for EV range and efficiency, the EPA says.

The Lucid Air starts at $89,050 with shipping for the base Pure trim and reaches $250,650 with shipping for the top-trim Sapphire coming this year. The brand's Gravity crossover is scheduled to launch in 2024.

In April, the Lucid Air won the 2023 World Luxury Car of the Year as part of the World Car Awards. In the U.S., reviews of the vehicle have been highly positive but also have noted some quality and software issues.

The Lucid roadshow "is designed to showcase the Lucid Air's game-changing electric vehicle performance and technology," the company said. "Consumers across the United States will have the opportunity to experience and drive various Lucid Air models, including the Lucid Air Grand Touring, offering 819 horsepower and an EPA-estimated range of 516 miles on a single charge." The Grand Touring starts at $139,650 with shipping.

Lucid, which sells directly to buyers, has 35 retail stores in North America concentrated mostly in EV-friendly cities. The most recent Lucid Studio location opened in March in Corte Madera, Calif., near San Francisco.

The EV maker's road tour will expand its marketing reach into cities where EVs are not yet very popular, such as Nashville; Birmingham, Ala., Louisville, Ky., Jackson Hole, Wyo.; and Bozeman, Mont. Also on the tour list are Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas and the Hamptons of New York.

Lucid's latest tour expands on similar pop-up events but now with more locations, more cars and more opportunities for the public to experience a Lucid Air, a company spokesperson told Automotive News.

"Lucid's pop-up activations will collect contact information from interested parties and share with sales for follow up," the spokesperson said.

Lucid forecast production this year at between 10,000 and 14,000 cars as part of its February earnings report. Last year, it made 7,180. Lucid will announce first-quarter earnings May 8.

The Newark, Calif.-based automaker launched the Air in late 2021 out of a new Arizona factory and quickly amassed tens of thousands of preorders — so many that Lucid struggled to build enough cars amid parts shortages. Lucid said it now has the opposite problem: not enough orders to keep its factory running at capacity.

Rival EV maker Tesla has not done Lucid any favors by cutting the price of its Model S sedan that competes directly with the Air. The Model S starts at $89,130 with shipping, down from $106,190 last year with shipping.

Lucid said in February that its order backlog for the Air sedan had fallen to 28,000 from 34,000 late last year.

The automaker reported first-quarter production of 2,314 and deliveries of 1,406. That was lower than production in the previous quarter of 3,493 and deliveries of 1,932. In March, Lucid announced an 18 percent cut to its work force, or about 1,300 employees.

The EV maker is majority-owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and is building a factory in that country to serve the Middle East. Lucid is also expanding to Europe with new retail locations.

"My focus is on sales," Rawlinson said on the earnings call in February. "And here's the thing: We've got what I believe to be the very best product in the world and just too few people aware of not just the car but the company."