Lucid lost track of its own cars, CEO admits on earnings call

What Lucid admitted

Lucid, the California-based maker of luxury electric vehicles such as the Air and Gravity, has blamed weak third quarter results partly on inventory control failures. According to Engadget, chief executive Silvio Napoli said on the earnings call that at times the company did not even know where its cars were.

The confusion caused delivery times of up to two weeks. Impatient buyers walked away, and Lucid lost orders as a result.

The numbers behind the chaos

Lucid is a small manufacturer compared with Tesla, so the scale of the problem is striking. The company built 2,954 vehicles last quarter and delivered 3,806, a seven percent drop from a year earlier.

Building fewer cars than it sold helped reduce stock, but Lucid still had $1.22 billion worth of vehicles on its books at the end of September. The company also lost $831 million in the quarter on revenue of just $350 million, because the cost of building each vehicle far exceeds its selling price.

A familiar problem for EV makers

Engadget draws a parallel with Tesla's early Model 3 ramp-up, when delivery bottlenecks also hurt sales. Tesla eventually took drastic steps, building its own car carriers and buying trucking companies, after which sales improved.

Napoli suggested Lucid's recent fixes to its shipping problems could have a similar effect. He said the changes would let the commercial team sell cars that are known to be available on the day for customers who need them.

Why Lucid remains hopeful

Despite the losses, Lucid expects a stronger second half of 2026. The company points to a growing US electric vehicle market driven by high fuel prices, and to a recent deal with the robotaxi company Bolt.

Its main investor, the Saudi Public Investment Fund, has also injected an additional $1.75 billion into the company, a sign of continued backing despite the difficult quarter.

Fixing logistics is only part of it

Better shipping will not address Lucid's other difficulties. The company still faces quality control issues and complaints about customer service, according to Engadget.

For buyers, the immediate effect of the logistics fixes should be faster and more predictable deliveries. Whether that is enough to restore confidence while the company continues to lose money on every car it builds remains to be seen.