Lucid production falls 38% as the EV maker clears inventory

Lucid built 2,954 vehicles in the third quarter, its lowest quarterly output since early 2025 and a 38% fall from the second quarter, while delivering 3,806 as it cleared inventory. The company has outstanding commitments for 25,000 driverless cars with Bolt in Europe and 20,000 with Uber.

Lucid built 2,954 cars in three months. Its European plan needs 25,000. The only route that approves a fully automated car across the whole European Union is capped at 1,500 a year per vehicle type.

Production fell 38% from the second quarter and 24% against the same period last year, and the company delivered 3,806 vehicles, down 6.7%, as InsideEVs reported. It sold more cars than it made. That is what clearing inventory looks like.

It is the lowest quarterly output since early 2025. Lucid does not break out sales by model. It said demand for the Gravity continued to regain momentum after a recall halted shipments for nearly a month.

The year as a whole reads better. Through 30 September, Lucid had built 13,228 vehicles, nearly 33% more than last year, and delivered 10,852, up 3%.

We reported in June that Silvio Napoli had cut 18% of the workforce and removed the second shift at the Casa Grande plant in Arizona, saving about $158M a year. Headcount fell to roughly 6,400, from about 9,000 at the end of 2025.

The European announcement came three months after that.

Bolt and Lucid said in September they wanted at least 25,000 driverless Lucids on European roads. Nothing was ordered, no money was committed and no date was set. The approval route that works across the whole union allows 1,500 cars a year per type.

At that rate the fleet takes about seventeen years.

Lucid has also promised 20,000 vehicles to Uber, which put about $500M into the Nuro partnership, with 100 test cars running in Houston and the Bay Area. Lucid lost $1.26B in the second quarter on revenue of $405M, and is cutting $1.4B.

The car meant to pay for all of it is late.

Napoli delayed the Cosmos to late 2027, saying the company had launched products before they were ready. It is meant to start under $50,000.

In Europe that is not an affordable car.

Transport and Environment counted 16 electric models under EUR 25,000 due on sale across the EU by the end of this year, twice last year’s number, with sales of those models on course to reach seven times their 2024 level.