Lucid was the only pure EV maker to grow its California registrations in the first quarter of 2026, posting a 37.1% year-over-year increase while Tesla, Rivian and legacy automakers recorded steep declines.
The comparison reflects the ramp of the Gravity SUV against a year-earlier baseline in which the Saudi-backed EV maker was delivering almost exclusively the Air sedan.
Lucid‘s California growth came despite a 29-day Gravity delivery halt during the first quarter — a disruption that accounted for roughly one-third of the quarter’s 90 days.
The Saudi-backed EV maker registered 1,315 vehicles in California during the first quarter, up from 959 a year earlier, according to data published Tuesday by the California New Car Dealers Association.
The Gravity SUV — Lucid‘s second model — entered production at the Arizona factory in December 2024 with only a handful of units shipped before the production ramp in 2025.
By the fourth quarter of 2025, Lucid management said Gravity deliveries had exceeded Air sedan deliveries for the first time, and both former interim CEO Marc Winterhoff and Chief Financial Officer Taoufiq Boussaid have described the Gravity as the “vast majority” of 2026 deliveries.
As a result, the Q1 2026 versus Q1 2025 comparison is effectively a two-model-lineup period set against a one-model baseline, unlike Tesla and Rivian, both of which had their full model lineups in market during both comparison quarters.
California’s Role in Lucid Sales
Lucid‘s 1,315 California registrations in the first quarter represented approximately 42.5% of the company’s 3,093 global deliveries during the same period — a concentration far higher than either of its pure-play EV peers.
Tesla‘s 31,958 California registrations represented roughly 8.9% of its 336,681 global Q1 deliveries, while Rivian‘s 1,841 California units accounted for approximately 17.8% of its 10,365 global Q1 total.
The high California concentration reflects Lucid‘s geographic footprint: the company’s headquarters, design centre, and vehicle assembly operations are all based in the state, and its retail network remains concentrated on the West Coast.
Lucid‘s full-year 2025 California registrations totalled 3,915 units — a 59.0% increase from 2,463 in 2024, also driven by the December 2024 Gravity production start and the model’s gradual ramp through the year.
Tesla and Rivian
The comparison with Tesla and Rivian is more like-for-like, with both EV makers selling the same model lineups in Q1 2025 and Q1 2026.
Tesla‘s California registrations fell 24.3% year-over-year to 31,958 units in the first quarter of 2026, from 42,211 a year earlier.
However, the company retained a dominant 56.0% share of the state’s ZEV market — up from 44.2% a year earlier as competitors lost volume more rapidly.
Tesla‘s total California market share dropped to 7.7% from 9.2%, and the Austin-based EV maker’s full-year 2025 California registrations of 179,573 units were down 11.5% from the 202,839 logged in 2024.
Rivian posted the steepest California decline among the state’s top 30 selling brands at -35.9%, with registrations falling to 1,841 units from 2,872 a year earlier.
Rivian and Lucid entered the first quarter with similar California volumes — separated by just 526 units.
While Lucid will only start production of its third model by the year end, Rivian has already begun internal deliveries of the R2 model.
Gravity Ramp
Lucid‘s California growth came despite a 29-day Gravity delivery halt during the first quarter — a disruption that accounted for roughly one-third of the quarter’s 90 days.
The halt followed a recall of 4,476 Gravity units manufactured before February 14, 2026, and held back newly produced units during the affected period.
The 29-day disruption affected only the Gravity; Air sedan deliveries continued throughout the quarter, though Lucid does not disclose model-level delivery splits.
Despite the disruption, Lucid has reaffirmed its full-year 2026 delivery guidance of 25,000 to 27,000 vehicles — which would represent a 58% to 70% increase over the 15,841 vehicles delivered globally in 2025.
Boussaid has set a target of producing 100,000 units annually by 2028 — less than half the combined installed capacity across Lucid‘s Arizona and Saudi Arabia plants, which total approximately 240,000 to 250,000 units per year.
The combination of Gravity ramp and Q1 disruption means the 37.1% California registration growth was achieved with Gravity volume contained to roughly two months rather than three — raising the possibility that underlying demand for Lucid vehicles in the state is materially stronger than the Q1 figure alone suggests.
California’s Broader EV Market
California’s ZEV share dropped to 13.7% of total new-vehicle registrations in the first quarter of 2026 — the lowest level since the fourth quarter of 2021 — down sharply from 21.0% for the full year 2025.
Total California ZEV registrations fell 40.2% year-over-year to 57,111 units from 95,520, reflecting the expiration of the $7,500 federal consumer EV tax credit at the end of September 2025 and broader affordability pressures across the state.
Every major pure-play and legacy EV maker besides Lucid, Cadillac, Hyundai, Lexus, and Toyota saw California ZEV registrations decline in the quarter.
Legacy automakers including Honda (-81.6%), Mercedes-Benz (-81.9%), Volkswagen (-81.5%), and Ford (-58.8%) posted some of the sharpest ZEV drops.
California still accounted for 29.6% of US ZEV registrations through March, with the state’s ZEV penetration of 13.7% remaining well above the US average of 5.2%.
Commercial Momentum Outside California
Lucid announced on April 14 an expanded partnership with Uber under which the ride-hailing company will purchase at least 35,000 Gravity SUVs and future Midsize platform vehicles over six years for an autonomous ride-hail service launching in the San Francisco Bay Area later in 2026.
Uber disclosed in an SEC filing on Monday that it holds 37,753,583 Lucid Class A shares — approximately 11.52% of the EV maker’s outstanding stock — making Uber the largest Lucid shareholder outside of the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, which retains roughly 60%.
Lucid shares rose as much as 13% in Tuesday’s trading session following Uber‘s 13G filing disclosure and closed 5.3% higher at $7.11 — partly reversing the 4.59% decline of Monday, which had set an all-time closing low of $6.75.
Trading volume on Tuesday exceeded 47.4 million shares in the opening hour alone — more than five times Lucid‘s three-month daily average of 8.95 million, indicating the Uber disclosure drove broad institutional and retail buying.
Even with Tuesday’s rebound, Lucid‘s market capitalisation has fallen to roughly one-quarter of the total amount the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund has invested in the EV maker since 2018.
Lucid is scheduled to report first-quarter 2026 earnings on May 5, when permanent CEO Silvio Napoli — who took the role on April 14 — is expected to address the Gravity ramp trajectory, the first midsize model Cosmos and the financial pressure.
