Third-quarter Lucid shipments fall 7% as production plunges 38%

Lucid (LCID) delivered 3,806 vehicles in the third quarter, down 7% from last year. It built just 2,954, a 38% reduction from the previous quarter and its lowest production since early 2025.

The automaker says it’s on purpose. New CEO Silvio Napoli is selling the unsold cars that Lucid accumulated in the first half of the year, and the third quarter is the first quarter of 2026 in which it delivered more vehicles than it built.

Lucid deliveries and production in the third quarter

Lucid released its third-quarter numbers today, a month ahead of its November 9 earnings report.

Deliveries fell 4% from the 3,953 vehicles Lucid delivered in the second quarter and 7% from the 4,078 delivered in the third quarter of 2025. Production fell much harder, from 4,774 vehicles in the second quarter to 2,954.

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On paper, production is down 24% compared to a year ago. It’s worse than that. In the third quarter of 2025, Lucid separately reported the more than 1,000 vehicles it shipped to Saudi Arabia for final assembly, and since the start of 2026 it has been counting everything leaving its Arizona factory. Count both quarters the same and production is down about 40%.

None of this is a surprise. Lucid cut the second shift at its Casa Grande factory in June when it laid off 18% of its staff, and withdrew its goal of building 25,000 to 27,000 vehicles this year. Nine months later, it had built 13,228 and delivered 10,852.

Lucid Stock Sale

During the first half of 2026, Lucid built 3,228 more vehicles than it delivered. Most of this happened in the first quarter, when a supplier issue with second-row seats delayed Gravity deliveries for 29 days while the factory continued to operate.

In the third quarter, deliveries exceeded production by 852 vehicles. That’s about a quarter of the first half’s stack.

The sale of these cars is the largest part of Naples’ “operational reset,” which targets $1.4 billion in improved cash flow in 2026. Lucid expects $600 million to $800 million to come from inventory, about $500 million in reduced capital spending and about $200 million in operating costs. Its balance sheet showed inventories of $1.38 billion at the end of June, compared to $1.11 billion six months earlier.

Lucid also said that demand for the Gravity “has continued to gain momentum.” He did not put a number and does not break down deliveries by model.

For comparison, Rivian delivered 19,248 vehicles in the third quarter as the R2 ramped up. That’s five times Lucid’s total.

Electrek’s point of view

Reducing production is the right decision. Lucid is losing about $1 billion a quarter, and building cars that no one ordered is only making the situation worse. Naples inherited the stock and he takes care of it.

Based on previously reported quarters, Lucid still has thousands of unsold cars to move and a Gravity that’s supposedly back in demand, and it still delivered fewer vehicles than a year ago. To be fair, the third quarter of 2025 benefited from the hasty arrival of American buyers before the federal tax credit expired. Rivian faced the same comparison and grew over 40% because it had a new product to sell.

And nothing will soon change that. The Cosmos is delayed until the second half of 2027, and robotaxi deals with Uber and Bolt won’t move real volume for years. Lucid therefore needs to spend at least another year on Air and Gravity at less than 4,000 deliveries per quarter. Liquidating inventory improves the cash flow situation, but it only works for a certain amount of time.

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