Lucid has pushed its market entries in Spain and Austria to 2027, EV learned on Wednesday, removing two countries from an expansion plan the company had slated for 2026.
Both markets were part of Lucid‘s plans to launch this year, according to the information obtained by EV.
Spain had been publicly named among the new European markets for 2026 on several occasions, while Austria had never been publicly confirmed — making its inclusion in the company’s internal plans, and now its delay, previously unreported.
The postponement extends a pattern of slipping European milestones at the company, whose United Kingdom launch has been delayed three times and now stands at early 2028, pushed back most recently in mid-May.
A Shrinking 2026 Map
Each postponement narrows what was announced as the largest expansion in Lucid‘s European history.
Last September, at the Gravity’s European debut in Germany, management told reporters including EV that the company would enter eight additional markets in 2026, tripling its footprint on the continent to as many as 12 countries.
“In total, next year our plans are to open in eight additional markets. So, we are rapidly expanding in Europe,” then-interim CEO Marc Winterhoff said in a Q&A session attended by EV.
Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Spain and the UK were among the markets confirmed across subsequent announcements, with France and the broader eight-market plan detailed by Winterhoff and European chief Lawrence Hamilton.
At its Investor Day on March 12, Lucid said it would add 25 new locations in Europe this year, a roughly 200% increase over its footprint at the time, alongside 10 in the Middle East and seven in North America.
With the UK pushed out to 2028 and Spain and Austria now following to 2027, the 2026 wave centers on Belgium — where Lucid opened its test-drive center on June 2 — alongside Denmark, France and Italy among the publicly confirmed markets.
Lucid had not publicly committed to a specific date for the Spanish launch beyond the 2026 window, and had made no announcement at all regarding Austria.
Spain, a Long-Telegraphed Entry
The Spanish market has featured in Lucid‘s public planning for more than a year.
In mid-2025, Hamilton told Spanish outlet Marca that the company aimed to establish a presence in the five largest European markets — Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Spain — within 18 months, attributing its absence from the Southern European countries to what he described as “lagging” EV adoption.
Early signs of preparation appeared in November 2025, when registration data from the EU-EVs platform showed three Air sedans registered in Spain — two Air Pure units and one Air Touring — followed by another Air Pure in early December.
At the time, EV reported it was unclear whether the vehicles were part of the company’s go-to-market preparations or individual imports, noting that brands typically register early units as showroom or internal-fleet vehicles before a launch.
Spain’s EV market has accelerated since Hamilton’s remarks, with battery-electric registrations growing strongly through 2025 and into 2026, making the delayed entry a postponed opportunity rather than a retreat from a stagnant market.
A Timeline That Kept Moving
Hamilton’s public statements over the past year, taken in sequence, trace how the plan has steadily compressed.
In June 2025, the executive told Marca that “our priority over the next 18 months is to establish a presence in the five major European countries” — a window that closed at the end of 2026 and that the Spanish delay now formally breaks.
In September 2025, Hamilton told Automobilwoche the company wanted to be “represented in twelve to 15 cities” in Germany as a first step, growing to 50 to 60 locations, adding that “a dealership group could start at one location and expand if successful.”
At the IAA that month, Winterhoff told Auto Express the UK would get a midsize-platform model in late 2026.
In January, Hamilton told Dutch outlet Autovisie that Lucid was “now accelerating: expanding in existing markets and entering new ones in the near future,” writing on LinkedIn: “Do enough Europeans know our brand? No, which is why we are becoming more visible through expansion.” Lucid was openly seeking retail partners at the time.
In February, announcing Belgium, he called the country “one of Europe’s most advanced EV markets” and wrote that “Belgium is just the beginning.”
In early April, Hamilton told Autocar the UK had slipped to 2027, explaining that “to engineer Air and Gravity for right-hand drive is a big investment, and there has to be a return on that investment,” and defending the slow start: “The strategy was always quite clear, which is to start relatively small and modestly.”
In mid-May, EV asked then-interim CEO Marc Winterhoff directly about the European expansion at the Financial TimesFuture of the Car summit in London.
“That’s still the plan,” Winterhoff said of the target of roughly 12 European markets. “I think the number is still around seven or eight this year.”
On the same day, Hamilton told The Independent the UK launch was moving again — “It’s more likely to be the beginning of 2028 rather than 2027” — while calling Britain a “prime place” for the brand and framing the sequencing bluntly: “In 2027, we’re going to focus on the markets that we’re already in,” with expansion plans “well under way there, so we don’t want to bite off more than we can chew.”
Less than a month after Winterhoff’s “still the plan” assurance, the Spain and Austria delays show the 2026 count shrinking again.
Austria, the Unannounced Market
Austria’s presence in the 2026 plan had never been disclosed.
The country did not appear in any of Lucid‘s public statements on its European expansion, suggesting Vienna was among the markets management had penciled in without naming when it referred to eight new entries.
Competitors have moved faster. Nio launched in Austria in November through distributor AutoWallis, opening orders and test drives for four models at a Vienna event, completing its first customer delivery in mid-December and registering five vehicles in January, its first full month in the market.
The Austrian route chosen by Nio — a multi-brand local distributor rather than company-owned retail — mirrors the importer model Lucid has said it will use for parts of its own expansion.
A Retail Model in Transition
Both delayed entries come as Lucid rebuilds its European distribution around partners instead of company-owned studios.
EV exclusively reported in February that the company had signed Mercedes-Benz dealer group Wackenhut as its first European dealer agent, with sales beginning at Baden-Baden on March 30 and the first distributor-delivered Gravity handed over in Germany in May.
Winterhoff said on the fourth-quarter earnings call that the company was “in advanced discussions with more than 10” additional dealer groups and importer candidates across Europe.
Earlier on Wednesday, EV exclusively reported that Dutch dealer group Munsterhuis, the Ferrari dealer for the Twente region, is set to sign as Lucid‘s agent partner in the Netherlands — the second European retail partner identified after Wackenhut, with the contract about to be finalized.
According to Hamilton, all new market entries — including Spain — will rely exclusively on local dealer partnerships, while the existing four markets keep their flagship studios under the hybrid model.
Sales Too Small to Carry an Expansion
The arithmetic behind the delays is visible in the registration data.
Lucid registered 319 vehicles across Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Norway in 2025, a 32% decline from 470 units a year earlier, and just 54 vehicles in the first quarter of 2026.
April brought 29 registrations, nearly triple a weak year-ago month, with Germany accounting for 21, and May rose to 35 units, a 12.9% increase, according to official data compiled by EV.
In Norway, the world’s most electrified car market, the company has registered roughly 31 vehicles in the three years since its Oslo opening in March 2023, a portion of them attributed to a local importer rather than Lucid‘s own customers.
The company is currently running delivery bonuses on the Air and Gravity in Germany and the Netherlands for handovers completed by June 30, the end of the second quarter.
Gravity customer deliveries in Europe also began later than planned, missing the January timeline Winterhoff set at the SUV’s September debut, when he told reporters including EV that the first units would reach customers at the start of 2026.
