If you listen to their investor day presentation, Lucid is about profitability. Basically everything they do efficiency (both drivetrain and packaging, and all the engineering associated with said efficiency gains) wise is about being able to reduce costs to return value to their investors. But all that talk is just to reassure investors. What they need are customers. The only way to get customers is to release cheaper cars. It's a fantasy to think Lucid will ever be able to have the margins of Ferrari.
What they advertise to prospective customers is far less clear. The 50k mainstream midsize SUV market is much different than the 100k luxury sedan and SUV market. This is even murkier in the EU market where Chinese EVs are available. They talk about efficiency but if someone looks up testing they'd find Edmund's and YouTubers like State of Charge and NotchEV showing that the Gravity not being able to hit the advertised range. That slide in their investor presentation says they can hit 300 miles with a 69kwh battery so they better hit that number in the real world if they advertise it. Otherwise, what's the point of the weirder looking Cosmos if the blocky Rivian R2 can come close to matching it?
Handling and performance are almost meaningless in this segment. Everything is already "good enough." Reliability is going to be everything, especially with the already bad wait times at the relatively few service centers dotted across the country (and world). Cosmos has to be bulletproof when its released, and it's already going to be behind if it takes until 2H27 for any real production to happen. People who might have bought one will already be in an R2, EX60, iX3, GLC, Model Y EV6/Ioniq 5, Mach E, id4, and whatever else I'm forgetting. Plus, all the brands that I'm not familiar with in the EU.
Anecdotally, I have relatives and co-workers who are all EV households but when I bring up Lucid, they either just chuckle and call it a failing company or have never even heard of it. The Cosmos launch essentially needs to be perfect.
But since this is the Investor's Forum, ask yourself this: What is Lucid's moat? And how deep/wide is said moat?
