Lucid Motors is offering a $7,500 lease discount on its Gravity crossover in the fourth quarter to cover the loss of the federal EV tax credit that expires at the end of September, the company said.
The credit applies to lessees who place an order by Sept. 30 and take delivery between Oct. 1 and the end of the year, Lucid said Aug. 14. The three-row crossover has a starting price of $96,500 with shipping.
Lucid launched the Gravity in December. But supplier issues slowed first-half production, interim CEO Marc Winterhoff said Aug. 5. Lucid now has the parts it needs to ramp output in the second half, he said.
The extension of the $7,500 credit by Lucid into the fourth quarter is designed to accommodate Gravity reservation holders who were counting on the discount when they ordered their vehicles, Lucid said.
“We are committed to doing our part through the end of the year to ensure an equivalent benefit remains available for our Lucid Gravity lease customers who are unable to take delivery before Sept. 30,” Erwin Raphael, Lucid’s vice president of revenue, said in a blog post.
Gravity is an important model in a challenging market
The Gravity is a key model for Lucid, which launched the Air sedan in 2021 into a tough market for big electric cars. The three-row crossover has greater market potential given buyer preferences for utility vehicles.
But the Gravity is off to a slow start out of Lucid’s factory in Casa Grande, Ariz., Winterhoff said Aug. 5.
Gravity deliveries from Jan. 1 to mid-August were in the “multiple hundreds,” said a Lucid spokesman who declined to provide greater detail.
Lucid cut its 2025 production outlook to a range of 18,000 to 20,000 vehicles from 20,000 previously in its second-quarter earnings report Aug. 5. The automaker posted a $906 million first-half net loss.
Lucid is offering a 36-month Gravity lease with monthly payments of $1,098 after $8,743 down on the Grand Touring trim, according to its website Aug. 14. That includes the $7,500 EV credit.
The Grand Touring comes with seating for up to seven adults, 828 hp and 450 miles of range, Lucid said.
The Air doesn’t qualify for the fourth-quarter lease discount.
Incentives are critical to EV affordability
Industry analysts predict automakers will have to provide their own incentives to compensate for the loss of the EV tax credits.
Manufacturers are already using perks such as subsidized financing, lease deals and sticker price discounts to bolster the affordability of electric vehicles compared with that of their gasoline counterparts.
EV incentives in June reached $8,451 per vehicle, a record 14.8 percent of the average transaction price, Cox Automotive said in July. That was more than double the incentives offered on non-EVs.
Electric vehicles on average carried sticker prices $8,785 higher than gasoline vehicles and hybrids in June, Cox said.
Without the government’s $7,500 credit to bolster EV sales, automakers are going to have to put more of their own cash on the hood or face lower deliveries in an already soft market.
“Manufacturers are going to have to lower the prices, whether it’s through incentives or interest rates or lease deals,” said Sam Fiorani, vice president of forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions. “Basic economics says you either match that price or you build fewer vehicles.”
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