Lucid Motors‘ interim chief executive Marc Winterhoff said the company continues to win customers from Tesla despite the recently launched new iteration
“We have seen an uptick, that’s definitely the case, in Europe and also here in the US,” Winterhoff told the Financial Times, adding that many buyers are leaving behind Tesla’s Model S, a car “that hasn’t changed in 12 years.”
Last week, Tesla said that recent buyers of Tesla’s Model S and Model X in the US who already purchased the Full Self-Driving package can now add a $2,000 “Luxe Package.”
The option includes lifetime free Supercharging, four years of premium service, and lifetime Premium Connectivity as the Elon Musk-led company seeks to boost demand for the recently revamped models.
Winterhoff had made similar remarks earlier this year, underscoring how defections from Tesla are becoming a more consistent theme for Lucid’s sales strategy.
The 2026 Tesla Model S is priced from $96,630 to $111,630, depending on the trim and options selected. The 2026 Lucid Air sedan starts at $72,400.
Despite that momentum, Winterhoff acknowledged Lucid’s current cash will only last into the second half of 2026.
“We’ll have to raise additional funds before we get profitable or break-even on our own,” he said.
Lucid shares are down 20% year to date and 33% over the past 12 months, with losses deepening after a July announcement of a 1-for-10 reverse stock split.
Since the beginning of 2024, the stock has slumped about 47%.
Winterhoff cited broader sector weakness and the looming end of US EV tax credits as additional drags. The subsidies had been “a big number of pure profit that we now have to live without,” he said, though he stressed Lucid never counted on them as a path to profitability.
Lucid announced the Uber and Nuro partnership minutes before unveiling the reverse split.
Uber invested $300 million in the EV maker, with plans to deploy more than 20,000 Gravity SUVs equipped with Nuro’s Level 4 autonomous system over six years starting in late 2026 with “a major US city.”
“The largest ride-hailing business in the world does a strategic deal and invests. It tells you something … 20,000 is a starting point. The sky’s the limit,” Winterhoff said.
On the Brew Markets podcast earlier this week, the interim CEO said: “Our aspiration is that this will be much bigger than that.”
For the first time, Winterhoff revealed that Lucid may move into fleet management itself, owning and renting the self-driving vehicles to Uber drivers to ensure recurring revenue.
Lucid lowered its official 2025 production guidance to 18,000–20,000 vehicles in August, though Winterhoff told investors at a recent Morgan Stanley conference that the internal target remains 20,000.
Winterhoff, who stepped in as interim chief in February after the departure of co-founder Peter Rawlinson, said the company’s workforce is “giving everything to make that happen.”
A drone flyover filmed last week showed more than 2,000 Gravity SUVs at its Arizona plant as the company continues to ramp up production of the three-row SUV.
Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Andres Sheppard said this week the midsize platform remains on track for late 2026 with a starting price below $50,000, describing it as another “material catalyst.”
The analyst met with Winterhoff and Lucid’s CFO earlier in the week in New York.
Lucid reported a liquidity of $4.86 billion at the end of the second quarter and is currently reviewing funding options ahead of debt maturities in 2026.
