Test drive before 2H25.....maybe?

[Disco Marathon]

Received an email from a new inside sales associate, Bryan, who will be taking over for Katja. The email makes it sound like Gravity test drives won’t be available until 2H25 which makes me wonder when deliveries will begin. This seems like a bad sign. Here’s the line: "As we progress into the New Year, I will ensure to stay in touch with you and share any exciting updates such as local Pop-Up Events, Gravity Test Drive Experiences (tentatively before 2nd half of 2025).” I was really hoping that delivery for GGT would be Q125.

 

[Batteryman]

Received an email from a new inside sales associate, Bryan, who will be taking over for Katja. The email makes it sound like Gravity test drives won’t be available until 2H25 which makes me wonder when deliveries will begin. This seems like a bad sign. Here’s the line: "As we progress into the New Year, I will ensure to stay in touch with you and share any exciting updates such as local Pop-Up Events, Gravity Test Drive Experiences (tentatively before 2nd half of 2025).” I was really hoping that delivery for GGT would be Q125.

He said " before" ...probably April/May

 

[sri]

He said " before" ...probably April/May

Considering Lucid timeline it may be a dat or two before 2nd half end. I hope they prove me wrong

 

[tonybot]

I hope they figure out the supply chain and manufacturing constraints mentioned in the earnings call. The dream edition and prioritizing that, considering the uptake will be a smaller pool from the current reservations, may help to prioritize. However, it feels like there are a lot of headwinds, given tariffs, the political climate against EVs, and Peter’s abrupt exit. I am concerned, but I will be super happy if I am wrong because I love Lucid and want them to thrive.

 

[NoseyReporter]

I stopped by the Pasadena location this weekend. One of the employees mentioned the Gravity should be in the showroom in a month. Didn't mention anything about test drives, but he seemed pretty confident they'd have one for people to sit in and look at in 30 days. One step closer to test drives I suppose.

 

[Disco Marathon]

BTW, after the super-enthusiastic introduction email, Bryan has taken a page out of Katja’s playbook and gone radio silent. These shenanigans don’t matter while the target audience is enthusiasts. But need to get cleaned up if Lucid wants to compete downmarket!

 

[HC_79]

BTW, after the super-enthusiastic introduction email, Bryan has taken a page out of Katja’s playbook and gone radio silent. These shenanigans don’t matter while the target audience is enthusiasts. But need to get cleaned up if Lucid wants to compete downmarket!

What do you expect? Corporate has abandoned them, leaving them unable to provide relevant information. My last update from my Sales Advisor was in January, and it was the exact same email she sent in December. I don’t blame her; I blame Lucid’s Executive management for placing these frontline employees in a position where they are bombarded with questions from order holders they simply can’t answer, setting them up for failure. The entire Gravity release schedule has been a colossal failure. While they may have exceeded expectations with Gravity orders, I wonder how long people will tolerate radio silence before they simply cancel and move on.

The cars should have been in the showrooms in January or February, not March or April.

Order Holder: I just placed my order for a Lucid Gravity, when can I expect it?
Sales Advisor: I don't know but thanks for the $1000

It's really quite pathetic.

 

[tonybot]

I got a call today from my SA asking if I want to switch to dream edition and said I have two more days. I was told they were asked to call folks like me who hasn’t made the switch. Unfortunately, he didn’t have answers to any questions including if there will be leases offered or when test drives be available, etc.

 

[FA14]

What do you expect? Corporate has abandoned them, leaving them unable to provide relevant information. My last update from my Sales Advisor was in January, and it was the exact same email she sent in December. I don’t blame her; I blame Lucid’s Executive management for placing these frontline employees in a position where they are bombarded with questions from order holders they simply can’t answer, setting them up for failure. The entire Gravity release schedule has been a colossal failure. While they may have exceeded expectations with Gravity orders, I wonder how long people will tolerate radio silence before they simply cancel and move on.

The cars should have been in the showrooms in January or February, not March or April.

Order Holder: I just placed my order for a Lucid Gravity, when can I expect it?
Sales Advisor: I don't know but thanks for the $1000

It's really quite pathetic.

Your quote, “The entire Gravity release schedule has been a colossal failure,” completely resonates with me. While they may have surpassed expectations with Gravity orders, I’m curious to know how many orders Lucid might have for the Gravity pre-orders.

 

[Batteryman]

What do you expect? Corporate has abandoned them, leaving them unable to provide relevant information. My last update from my Sales Advisor was in January, and it was the exact same email she sent in December. I don’t blame her; I blame Lucid’s Executive management for placing these frontline employees in a position where they are bombarded with questions from order holders they simply can’t answer, setting them up for failure. The entire Gravity release schedule has been a colossal failure. While they may have exceeded expectations with Gravity orders, I wonder how long people will tolerate radio silence before they simply cancel and move on.

The cars should have been in the showrooms in January or February, not March or April.

Order Holder: I just placed my order for a Lucid Gravity, when can I expect it?
Sales Advisor: I don't know but thanks for the $1000

It's really quite pathetic.

That’s probably why Peter was told to step down , it’s good for the company….

 

[HC_79]

I got a call today from my SA asking if I want to switch to dream edition and said I have two more days. I was told they were asked to call folks like me who hasn’t made the switch. Unfortunately, he didn’t have answers to any questions including if there will be leases offered or when test drives be available, etc.

Nick Twork said leasing would be available day 1 and it was even mentioned on the earning call that leasing is making up a good portion of the sales so will be interesting if they back pedal and offer no leasing day 1 especially when all the competitors are offering it on new models with lots of incentives.

Tom Noreen, Analyst, RBC: Okay. And my final one on the IRA credit, could you remind us what portion of your demand came from the lease portion of the IRA? That's I think what folks are thinking may go away. Just seeing of what headwind that could be for you guys?

Mark Winterhoff, Interim CEO, Lucid Group: I think right now it's no secret that a good portion or a big portion of the all in lease sales in North America are leases and it also applies to us. But I wanted to point out earlier I said already that in our production numbers and obviously linked the delivery numbers, we already anticipated regulatory changes and how that potentially impacts our demand. One maybe additional information on gravity. As I mentioned, we only have opened orders for the Grand Touring, yes? And a vast majority of that car right now is configured at prices around $120,000 where the price elasticity is not as big as when you talk about your $60,000 vehicle or $50,000 vehicle.

 

[yadaBaga]

My impression was that leases won't be available for dream edition (similar to Air DE?) but will be for GGT?

I'm wondering if Gravity DE are imminently going into production, as those deposits were not refundable.

 

[WeighingGravity]

I got a call today from my SA asking if I want to switch to dream edition and said I have two more days. I was told they were asked to call folks like me who hasn’t made the switch. Unfortunately, he didn’t have answers to any questions including if there will be leases offered or when test drives be available, etc.

I couldn’t reach my SA directly but talked to someone at the local experience center. She was very nice although hesitant to answer too many questions that directly. That said, one of my questions was “how long will the DE order window remain open? Do i have days, weeks, or months to decide?” Of all my questions this was the one she was surest of and she indicated there was no big rush. She promised to get back to me with answers to the rest of my questions.

Since then, not only have I not heard back from her, but I got a subsequent email from my SA that made no mention of the convo I’d had with her and that she said she was going to immediately relay to him.

And now it’s been a few days since emailed him with questions and I haven’t heard back.

Let’s just say that this doesn’t appear to be a well oiled machine. How can SAs sell something when it isn’t even exactly clear what it is, when it will arrive, and even when the opportunity to buy it actually ends?

 

[tonybot]

My impression was that leases won't be available for dream edition (similar to Air DE?) but will be for GGT?

I'm wondering if Gravity DE are imminently going into production, as those deposits were not refundable.

That was my question to SA as well. Would there be leases offered in Gravity dream edition and he didn’t know. I assume there will be leases for GT.

 

[NoseyReporter]

Is there a VP of Sales at Lucid? Seems like they fucking need one. A sales guy would be all over trying to get the product into a person's hand to get the money of the table.

I love the engineering but no one at Lucid seems to know how to sell to customers and manage customer relations.

 

[HC_79]

My impression was that leases won't be available for dream edition (similar to Air DE?) but will be for GGT?

I'm wondering if Gravity DE are imminently going into production, as those deposits were not refundable.

Interestingly the DE did have 3 options to choose from when ordering. Cash, Finance, Finance - Lease so if leasing was not an intended option for the DE then maybe Lucid should have removed that option. Again, this whole process has been a disaster and seems no one at Lucid can even give clear answers.

 

[HC_79]

Is there a VP of Sales at Lucid? Seems like they fucking need one. A sales guy would be all over trying to get the product into a person's hand to get the money of the table.

I love the engineering but no one at Lucid seems to know how to sell to customers and manage customer relations.

Adrian Price will be SVP of operations replacing Steve David. Per Lucid, Adrian has extensive global manufacturing and supply chain experience from Ford, his expertise in lean manufacturing and quality control will be key to scaling production AMP-1. Steve was put in to fix the Air production woes and now it seems he's been booted and replaced by Adrian to sort out production. Again, it's great that Lucid can engineer these world class vehicles but they seem to have completely ignored the fact on how they were going to get them produced and delivered in a timely manner.

 

[HC_79]

My impression was that leases won't be available for dream edition (similar to Air DE?) but will be for GGT?

Leasing wan't available on Air DE because Lucid didn't offer leasing full stop. Even early Air GT owners couldn't lease which was completely understandable as Lucid was just getting its footing off the ground. Today though, leasing should be offered on all trims day 1. It's what many expect, especially premium brands.

 

[Leftlane]

That’s the problem with disruptors - sometimes they disrupt parts of the process so thoroughly that they FUBAR it for all intents and purposes. These companies that act like selling is a bad thing have lost the plot - you still need to be able to sell your vision and sell the vehicles. Leave it up to the buyer to figure it all out and they will - by going somewhere else. Based on volume so far, this seems pretty applicable. The car can be great, but if they have no idea how to get it in the buyer’s hands, then who cares? In my business no one in the company gets paid a nickel until a salesperson sells something.

 

[Pragmatic]

In my business no one in the company gets paid a nickel until a salesperson sells something.

Must work great for engineering and design staff for new products.