Lucid Motors interim Chief Executive Officer Marc Winterhoff said on Tuesday the EV maker remains on track to enter “seven or eight” new European markets in 2026, with each new dealer partnership designed to provide four times more service capacity than sales capacity.
Winterhoff confirmed the rollout pace in response to a question from EV at the Financial Times Future of the Car summit in London — his first public commentary since the Q1 2026 earnings conference call.
“That’s still the plan,” Winterhoff said when asked about the company’s previously stated target of expanding from four to 12 European markets this year.
“I think the number is still around seven or eight this year.”
Napoli’s employment with Lucid began April 15, but he will only formally assume the CEO title once he completes the US visa and work authorization process and relocates from Switzerland to California.
Winterhoff will return to his former Chief Operating Officer role.
The First Agent Partner
Winterhoff said that Lucid’s first agent partner has now formally launched — confirming the operational status of the Wackenhut partnership that began selling and servicing Lucid vehicles at its Baden-Baden facility on March 30.
The deal with Wackenhut was exclusively reported by EV in February.
“We’ve just — by the way — launched our first agent partner,” he said. “It actually takes time to move from a direct to consumer model to an indirect model.”
The Wackenhut partnership represents the foundational shift in Lucid’s European business model from purely company-owned showrooms to a hybrid distribution approach combining direct sales with local dealer partnerships.
Wackenhut, the family-owned automotive retail group headquartered in Nagold, Baden-Württemberg, also represents Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes-AMG, Aston Martin, Smart, and Škoda across multiple locations in the state.
A second Wackenhut location in Stuttgart is set to launch this summer.
Lucid currently operates company-owned showrooms in Munich, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, and Hamburg.
The Service-Heavy Distribution Logic
Winterhoff’s London comments included framing Lucid’s partner-selection criteria around service capacity.
“Expecting actually four times more service capacity than sales capacity,” he said. “Since that is a very important topic.”
The 4-to-1 service-to-sales ratio reflects Lucid’s operational priorities at this stage of European expansion: building customer trust through after-sales support before driving sales volume.
The framing also reflects practical reality.
Premium EV ownership requires reliable warranty service infrastructure, and Lucid’s current European service footprint is concentrated around its four showroom-equipped cities — leaving customers in other regions dependent on transport-back or third-party service workarounds.
Markets Confirmed
Lucid’s European expansion plans were first outlined at the IAA Auto Show in Munich last September, where Winterhoff and Europe President Lawrence Hamilton said the company would enter eight new markets in 2026.
The initial confirmed target list has narrowed slightly — to seven or eight, per Winterhoff’s Tuesday remarks — but the strategic direction remains.
Belgium was confirmed in February as the next market entry, with Hamilton describing the country as “one of Europe’s most advanced EV markets.”
The Belgian launch is scheduled for this summer.
Additional markets previously identified for 2026 expansion include France, Denmark, and other Western European countries, with Lucid running parallel partner-selection conversations.
Winterhoff confirmed during the Q4 2025 earnings call that the company was in advanced discussions with more than 10 additional dealer groups and importer candidates across Europe.
Last September, Hamilton told Automobilwoche that Lucid was targeting 12 to 15 German cities as an initial step, with plans to eventually reach 50 to 60 locations through a shop-in-shop format.
European Demand
The aggressive European expansion comes amid soft initial demand for Lucid’s European launch model.
Lucid registered zero units of the Air sedan in the Netherlands in January — for the second time in three months — highlighting the demand challenge facing the brand in markets it has already entered.
The company delivered its first Gravity SUV in Germany in late February, followed by a high-profile delivery to Austrian-born celebrity chef Johann Lafer through Wackenhut last week.
Lucid is set to close its Oslo showroom later this week after zero customer sales in 2026 — as it plans to open a new one later this year at its service and delivery center.
