Lucid‘s Air sedan sold an estimated 506 units in the US in the third quarter, down 80.0% from a year earlier and the model’s lowest quarterly total since the second quarter of 2022, according to Kelley Blue Book data released by Cox Automotive on Monday.
The figure was 40.2% below the 846 Airs Cox estimated for the second quarter, which had already been the lowest since 2022.
Only two quarters in Cox’s estimates were weaker, the first and second quarters of 2022, at 460 and 482 units, when Lucid was still ramping up production of its debut model at its plant in Casa Grande, Arizona.
Lucid began delivering the Air in October 2021, starting with the Dream Edition.
The Air was Lucid’s only model on sale until the company started smart scale deliveries of the Gravity SUV in December 2024 to employees and their friends and families.
A Steep Decline
Air sales peaked at 3,188 units in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to Cox.
They have fallen in each quarter since, to 920 in the first quarter of 2026, 846 in the second and 506 in the third, a cumulative drop of 84.1%, by EV‘s calculation.
Cox estimated 2,531 Air sales in the third quarter of 2025, in its revised figures.
Air sales in the first nine months of 2026 totaled 2,272, down 70.2% from 7,625 a year earlier.
Before this year, the sedan had sold between 1,404 and 3,188 units a quarter in Cox’s estimates since the start of 2023. The Air had its best year in 2025, with 10,813 US sales, up 17.1% from 9,236 in 2024, according to Cox.
Cox’s figures are estimates and have been revised over time.
Motor Intelligence, another firm that tracks US sales, estimated 684 Air sales in the third quarter, including 207 in September.
Motor Intelligence put Gravity sales at 2,051, below Cox’s figure, so the two firms differ on the split between the models while agreeing broadly on Lucid’s total.
Its monthly estimates for the Air fell through the quarter, from about 240 in July to 237 in August and 207 in September.
The Gravity Takes Over
The Gravity SUV sold an estimated 2,202 units in the US in the quarter, 4.4 times the Air’s volume, according to Cox.
That was up 238.8% from 650 a year earlier, when the SUV was in its first months of volume deliveries, after Cox’s report for the second quarter of 2025 had counted just five Gravity sales.
The Air accounted for 18.7% of Lucid’s estimated 2,708 US sales in the quarter, down from 31.8% in the second quarter and 36.1% in the first.
Lucid’s US sales fell 14.9% from a year earlier, as growth in the Gravity failed to offset the decline in the sedan.
The company delivered 3,806 vehicles worldwide in the quarter, down 6.7% from a year earlier, without giving a split by model.
Lucid said demand for the Gravity “continued to regain momentum.”
The Air is also sold outside the US, including in Canada, Europe and Saudi Arabia, where Lucid completes assembly of Arizona-built vehicles at its plant in King Abdullah Economic City.
Lucid offered cash incentives of up to 45,000 riyals ($12,000) on the Air and Gravity in Saudi Arabia during Ramadan, and registered no Air sedans in the Netherlands in the first quarter.
Production fell 38% from the second quarter to 2,954 vehicles, after Lucid eliminated the second production shift at its Arizona plant in June, and deliveries exceeded output by 852 units as the company sold down inventory.
Yearly Updates, No Redesign
Lucid has not given the Air a redesign since deliveries began, relying instead on price cuts and model-year updates to sustain demand.
In February 2024, it cut the sedan’s prices by up to $8,000, lowering the Pure to $69,900 from $77,400, the Touring to $77,900 from $85,900 and the Grand Touring to $109,900 from $110,900.
The company also dropped the all-wheel-drive Pure and, from the 2024 model year, the 1,050-horsepower Grand Touring Performance, which had launched in 2022 at $179,000, leaving the Sapphire as the top version.
“Too few people are aware of not just the car, but even the company,” then-Chief Executive Officer Peter Rawlinson said of 2023, when Lucid delivered 6,001 vehicles.
Five months later, Lucid unveiled the 2025 Air, rating the Pure at 5.0 miles per kilowatt-hour and 420 miles of range, and making a heat pump and its DreamDrive Premium driver-assistance system standard across the lineup.
The Grand Touring kept an Environmental Protection Agency-estimated range of 512 miles, and the Touring was priced from $78,900.
Air sales rose to 9,236 in 2024 and 10,813 in 2025, according to Cox.
The 2026 Air, launched in July 2025, raised prices by $1,000 to $4,000, extended the Touring’s range by more than 6% to 431 miles, and added a quieter air-conditioning compressor taken from the Gravity.
Lucid opened Tesla’s Supercharger network to the Air through a $220 adapter from July 31, 2025, and a day earlier rolled out hands-free driving on highways for Airs equipped with its DreamDrive Pro system.
The sales decline began in early 2026.
Then-interim Chief Executive Officer Marc Winterhoff said at CES in January that Lucid did not plan a sedan for its upcoming midsize platform, according to InsideEVs.
“I don’t want to be in the sedan segment,” Winterhoff said, adding that the Gravity accounted “for the vast majority of our deliveries.”
The 2027 Air, unveiled in August, kept prices unchanged and narrowed the options on the entry Pure, while the UX 3.0 software overhaul comes standard on the 2027 model and is being rolled out to 2025 and later Airs in the US, Europe and the Middle East by over-the-air update.
Owners of 2022, 2023 and some 2024 Airs need a $950 hardware upgrade to receive it.
The End of the Tax Credit
The federal tax credit of up to $7,500 for new electric vehicles ended for vehicles acquired after September 30, 2025, under the tax and spending law signed by President Donald Trump in July 2025.
The Air did not qualify for the credit when bought outright, but leases did, and Lucid passed the $7,500 on to lessees.
On August 14, 2025, Lucid introduced a $7,500 Lucid Advantage Credit to stand in for the federal credit after it expired.
The offer applied only to leases of the Gravity Grand Touring and Dream Edition ordered by September 30 and delivered by December 31, 2025, according to Lucid’s terms, and excluded the Air.
Lucid told Air shoppers they had to take delivery by September 30 to receive the $7,500 lease credit, according to CarsDirect.
Two weeks before the deadline, Lucid cut lease prices on unsold 2025 Airs, with Pure leases starting at $509 a month including the credit.
“We definitely will see an impact, but we have already started to mitigate that,” Winterhoff said in September, adding that Lucid would “obviously provide some incentives in Q4,” according to Forbes.
In the fourth quarter, Lucid advertised 2026 Air Pure leases from $509 a month, combining a $2,000 bonus for vehicles in stock at its studios with a $2,000 offer for owners of rival brands.
Air sales rose to their record 3,188 in that quarter, according to Cox, before falling to 920 in the first quarter of 2026.
Lucid extended the Gravity credit to deliveries by January 18, 2026, and again to February 12, before reviving it in March.
It has also offered an Air credit in 2026 of up to $12,500 for cash buyers of the Pure and Touring, and up to $15,000 on the Grand Touring.
Prices and Incentives
The 2027 Air is priced at $70,900 for the Pure, $79,900 for the Touring, $114,900 for the Grand Touring and $249,000 for the Sapphire.
It has relied on incentives to move the sedan, including 0% financing for up to 60 months on the Air Touring and lease credits of up to $15,000 in offers that ran to July 31, alongside a late-July 0% financing push that covered both models.
The Air has also faced quality and software issues this year.
Lucid recalled 27,185 Air sedans in August over a fire risk, fixing it with an over-the-air update, and earlier pushed a software update to 2,039 Airs over an inverter defect.
In April, Lucid issued a physical recall of the Air after a defect widened to 3,600 units.
In May, the company bought back the Air of a YouTuber who had documented 11 months of software problems.
The company is preparing a UX 3.0 infotainment overhaul for the sedan and has started certified used Air sales in Europe.
The Wider Market
US electric vehicle sales rose 7.7% from the second quarter to 266,630 units, according to Cox, but were 38.6% below the third quarter of 2025, when buyers rushed to claim the federal tax credit before it expired.
The Air took 0.2% of the US market in the quarter, and Lucid as a whole 1.0%.
Lucid has given no delivery or production target for 2026 since suspending its guidance in May.
Lucid’s shares fell 9.4% on Monday to $3.435, their lowest close since the company went public in 2021, after it disclosed another $400 million draw on its credit line from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and RBC Capital Markets cut its price target on the stock to $4 from $7.
The shares were down a further 2.3% at $3.35 at 10:30 a.m. in New York on Tuesday, after touching $3.32, giving Lucid a market value of about $1.32 billion.
The company will report third-quarter results on November 9.
