Lucid Motors‘ CFO Taoufiq Boussaid said on Tuesday that the company’s Cosmos model will see a “slow production ramp” in 2027, tempering expectations for the mid-size SUV that management has positioned as its primary catalyst toward profitability.
“We are going to do it in a very prudent and measured way, so we are not going to build over capacity for the time being,” Boussaid said at Bank of America’s 2026 Global Automotive Summit, where he appeared alongside interim CEO Marc Winterhoff.
The CFO said the Cosmos — Lucid‘s upcoming midsize SUV priced below $50,000 — will begin production at the company’s Saudi Arabian plant by the end of this year.
Boussaid said the units produced in 2026 will be followed by a “relatively slow ramp in 27 and then moving towards full capacity in 2028.”
The Saudi facility is being built with capacity for 150,000 units dedicated to midsize production.
The timeline underscores the gap between Lucid‘s ambitions and its near-term output.
Boussaid set a target at last week’s Investor Day of producing 100,000 units annually by 2028.
The figures represent roughly two-thirds of the Saudi plant’s installed capacity and nearly four times the 25,000 to 27,000 vehicles the company guided for this year.
A $300B Market
Boussaid framed the Cosmos as Lucid‘s entry into a “$300 billion” midsize segment that he described as “massive, but also very busy.”
He said the company had segmented its positioning carefully within the category across its first two variants — the Cosmos and the Earth — where Lucid has “short-term visibility in terms of timing.”
Combined capacity across Lucid‘s Arizona and Saudi plants will reach ‘roughly 250,000 units a year,’ Boussaid said, before refining the total to 240,000 units spanning Air, Gravity, and midsize production.
“If we see that the volume expands beyond that, we will obviously add — in a very flexible way — additional production line,” he added.
At the UBS Conference in December, Boussaid described a “gradual ramp-up through 2027 and 2028, reaching full capacity in 2029.”
At Investor Day last week, the CFO revealed the target of achieving annual production of 100,000 units by 2028.
That figure would still represent only 40% of the combined plant capacity Boussaid outlined on Tuesday.
Profitability Hinges on Scale
Speaking with Bloomberg last week, the executive detailed that the plan hinges on two milestones.
“The first one is the gross margin positive, and this is expected to happen in the midterm, and you should read midterm, basically the next three years, and the free cash flow positive expected by the late decade,” Boussaid stated.
According to Taoufiq, one of the key catalysts to allow Lucid to “go to breakeven margin and cash flow positive” is the scale coming out of its mid-size platform.
The first model under the platform — named Cosmos — will begin production in Saudi Arabia later this year.
Then, “the second one is the margin improvement and the additional revenue streams that we will be adding to our top line,” Boussaid added.
Lucid reported a GAAP margin of -89% in Q4, down eight points from the same quarter last year.
Financials
Lucid reported last month its largest quarterly operating loss on record, despite revenue beating Wall Street expectations with a 123% year-over-year increase.
Its negative free cash flow of $3.8 billion in 2025 comprised $2.93 billion in cash used in operating activities and $868 million in capital expenditures.
The latter was directed primarily toward expansion of its Casa Grande, Arizona, manufacturing facility, the build-out of a second plant in Saudi Arabia, and development of the upcoming mid-size vehicle platform.
Cash consumption accelerated in the fourth quarter, when Lucid recorded negative operating cash flow of $916 million and capital expenditures of $325 million, producing quarterly free cash flow of negative $1.24 billion.
In the earnings call that followed Lucid‘s fourth-quarter results on February 24, Boussaid told investors the company has $4.6 billion in liquidity, which he said is sufficient to fund operations into the first half of 2027.
Late last month, Winterhoff confirmed “there will be another fundraise” when asked whether Lucid would require further capital before turning profitable.
Lucid has guided for 25,000 to 27,000 manufactured EVs and $1.2 to $1.4 billion in capital expenditures for the year.
Robotaxi Plans
Uber’s President and Chief Operations Officer Andrew MacDonald announced during Lucid‘s Investor Day that the two companies are finishing an agreement to expand the two companies’ robotaxi deal.
The ride-hailing company is expected to use Lucid’s upcoming midsize platform as a robotaxi, at volumes comparable to the 20,000 Gravity SUVs already under contract.
Questioned about the string of revenue from this deal for Lucid, Boussaid admitted that it is “the gold standard in this kind of business to secure recurring revenues,” with this being “how you spread the risk over time and this is how you give confidence on the validity of the business case.”
On the other side, Lucid‘s CFO highlighted that its approach means they “are also staying away from whatever is associated with the capital intensive business.”
Therefore, Boussaid doesn’t think the EV maker “will ever have a model where we own the assets and we generate revenue out of it,” he added.
During the event, Lucid unveiled its two-seat dedicated robotaxi concept called Lunar, which it claims would cut fleet operating costs by 40% compared with current robotaxis.
However, the company has not outlined what its robotaxi operations would look like.
