Lucid Group (NASDAQ:LCID) released first-quarter financial results and hosted an earnings call on Tuesday. Read the complete transcript below.
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Summary
Lucid Group reported $282 million in revenue for Q1 2026, with a production of 5,500 vehicles and delivery of 3,093 vehicles.
The company expanded its partnership with Uber to provide a minimum of 35,000 robotaxis and raised over $1 billion in new capital.
Lucid Group is focused on scaling production, reducing costs, and prioritizing the launch of its midsize platform by 2027.
The company has implemented a cost reduction program targeting savings across all areas and has initiated a new production reporting methodology for better transparency.
Lucid Group’s liquidity stands at approximately $4.7 billion, providing operating runway into the second half of 2027, with a focus on disciplined execution to reach profitability.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to The Lucid Group first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Please be advised that today’s conference call is being recorded. Later we will conduct a question and answer session. To ask the question during that time, please press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised to withdraw your question. Please press star 11 again. I would now like to turn the conference over to your speaker for today, Nick Talk, Vice President of Communications. Please go ahead.
Nick Talk (Vice President of Communications)
Thank you and welcome to Lucid Group’s first quarter 2026 earnings call. Joining me today are Silvio Napoli, incoming CEO Mark Winterhoff, our interim CEO, and Tufik Busid, our CFO. Before handing the call over to Silvio, let me remind you that some of the statements on this call include forward looking statements under federal securities laws. These include without limitation statements regarding the future financial performance of the company, production and delivery volumes, vehicles and products, studios and service networks, financial and operating outlook and guidance, macroeconomic geopolitical policy and industry trends, tariffs and trade policy, company initiatives, leadership changes and other future events. These statements are based on various assumptions, whether or not identified in this communication and on the predictions and expectations of our management as of today. Actual events or results are difficult or impossible to predict and may differ due to a number of risks and uncertainties. We refer you to the cautionary language and the risk factors in our annual report on Form 10K for the year ended December 31, 2025, subsequent quarter reports on Form 10Q, current reports on our Form 8K and other SEC filings and the forward looking statements on page two of our quarterly earnings presentation available on the Investor Relations section of our [email protected] we undertake no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward looking statement for any reason except as required by law. In addition, management will make reference to non GAAP financial measures during this call. A discussion of why we use non GAAP financial measures and information regarding reconciliation of our GAAP vs non GAAP results is available in our earnings press release issued earlier this afternoon as well as in the earnings presentation. With that, I’d like to turn the call over to lucid’s incoming CEO Silvio Napoli. Silvio, please go ahead.
Silvio Napoli (Incoming CEO)
Thank you Nick Good morning everyone and thank you for joining. This is my first earnings call with Lucid and has already had the opportunity to share with many of you. I’m extremely pleased to be here and part of the Lucid team. With not even a month with the company. I’m still at a very early stage, so I’ll keep iterating why I’m here. Lucid brings together state of the art technology, a premium product platform and a unique opportunity to build a strong, enduring position in a transforming industry. And that combination is compelling. That is the reason that brought me here today. Three weeks into the journey, I’m even more convinced that this is the case. In my first days, I’ve had the opportunity to meet with our teams in Newark headquarters and in some of our key markets. In fact, on the very first day, I traveled to visit a factory in Arizona, the heart of Lucid. Last week I traveled to Saudi Arabia to witness a strong brand recognition in this fast growing market and to see firsthand the progress of a new factory under construction. As you know, this manufacturing center is an essential part of our commitment to drive, scale, profitability and to position Lucid on the world stage. While there, I’ve also been meeting with employees, shareholders and with local stakeholders. And everywhere I go, I’m focused on listening and beginning to understand where we are strongest and where we need to improve. And what stands out immediately is the incredible domain competence and outstanding motivation of the LUCI team and the strength of a product. At the same time, it’s clear that realizing Lucid’s full potential will require sharper focus and consistent execution, particularly around simplification, prioritization and speed. My near term priorities are straightforward. Re-center all our activities around the customers, ensure the organization operates with clarity and accountability, focus resources on the highest impact areas and embed a stronger culture of cost and capital discipline across the business. A central objective over time is to build a more self sufficient company. One that progresses towards funding its own growth. And that means being rigorous in delivering on our commitments. And now we allocate capital to few vital priorities. In simple words, this means making clear choices on where to invest and just as important, where not to. At the risk of stating the obvious and not in the position to comment on results reached prior to my joining. Accordingly, I trust you will understand that today I will not comment on any specifics, including the outlook. My goal over the coming weeks is to deepen my understanding of the business so I can engage more fully with you in the future discussions. With that, I’ll turn the call over to the team to walk you through the Q1 results. Thank you.
Mark Winterhoff (Interim CEO)
Thank you Silvio. And good afternoon everyone. Let me start with the key takeaways. We expanded our Uber partnership to at least 35,000 vehicles, raised over $1 billion in new capital and ended the quarter with a clear cost reduction program underway. The foundation is solid and we are building on it. We have made meaningful progress on each of these fronts. Among the highlights. First, we expanded our partnership with Uber to provide a minimum of 35,000 robotaxis, up from 20,000 previously announced, and increased their investment to 500 million, up from 300 million, improving our visibility into long term demand and revenue in a new and growing market, further reflecting the strengthening relationship between our companies. Sachin Khansal, Chief Product Officer at Uber, has been nominated for election to Lucid’s board of directors. Second, we significantly strengthened our financial position, raising approximately $1.05 billion including 550 million investment from the Public Investment Fund through a private placement, reaffirming their continued support and long term commitment to Lucid. We maintained approximately 2 billion of undrawn commitment under the DDTL after drawing 500 million of cash in April, further enhancing our financial flexibility pro forma for the capital raise and the DDTL. Increase liquidity at quarter end would have been 4.7 billion, providing ample flexibility to continue to support development of our midsize platform and the continued build out of M2. Third, we continue to execute to deliver scale and profitability, delivering $282 million in revenue. Despite the unforeseen geopolitical tensions and logistical obstacles in the region during Q1, our M2 construction never stopped and we continue to install capital equipment and work toward start of production. The plan remains to ramp up midsize vehicle production in 2027 and we launched an aggressive cost reduction program targeting cost savings across all areas of the organization in all geographies. Let me walk you through the key updates of the execution of our strategy in detail. Following the framework we laid out at our recent investor day. The Lucid Air and gravity continue to anchor our near term growth and our focus here remains execution, quality, delivery and customer experience. Operationally, we produced 5,500 vehicles in Q1, up 149% year over year. Despite a temporary disruption which elevated cost, we exited the quarter trending back toward our cost targets. We delivered 3093 vehicles which was flat compared to Q1 2025. When Gravity deliveries were temporarily impacted by a supplier issue, we acted, quickly, resolved it and resumed deliveries with additional quality controls. As deliveries resumed, we saw improving momentum through the quarter, including the highest March deliveries in lucid history, up 14% year over year. We also experienced a strong rebound in order intake up 144% in North America in March from February with gravity driving the majority of demand. In March we regained our position among the best selling EVs in our segments. We also continued to make progress on our partnerships for our international distribution, including the official launch of our first retail partnership in Europe, which allows us to scale more quickly in a capital efficient way. We expect the delivery trajectory to improve through the year. Near term demand signals are mixed, but we see tailwinds building into the second half. Apart from seasonality which historically drives greater deliveries in second half, there are numerous other factors which may deliver a lift, including high gas prices which tilt demand towards vehicles with more attractive operating cost competitive dynamics including exits from the air and gravity segments. These cycles Lucid software updates potential tariffs on European imports and potential improvements in macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions. As a result, we continue to expect a back end weighted Delivery profile for 2026, but are confident in the long term trajectory of demand. Our priority now is consistent and predictable conversion of production into deliveries. Central to our framework to scale and drive profitable growth is the Midsize platform. The Midsize platform brings Lucid’s signature range, efficiency and driving experience to a much larger TAM and broader set of customers, and is key to unlocking scale, affordability and improved unit economics. At our recent investor day we provided a clearer view of the future product portfolio with the expected pricing starting below 50,000, reinforcing Lucid’s entry into a more accessible segment of the market. I’m pleased to be able to share that our BOM cost position remains favorable, still tracking below our initial cost estimates during the quarter. Construction on M2 and installation of Keppel equipment continued and we remain on track for production ramp up of the midsize in 2027. Turning to our third priority, autonomy, in mid April we announced the expansion of our partnerships with Uber, increasing their total investment to $500 million and expanding the planned deployment to at least 35,000 robotaxi vehicles. This represents a meaningful increase in both scale and long term visibility for the program, which generates a new revenue stream through a partnership approach that enables rapid speed to market in a new and rapidly growing market with minimal capex. I’m excited to share that we have met all milestones so far in our joint project with NURO to provide autonomous Lucid gravities to Uber for commercial launch by the end of the year and remaining milestones are on Track. We delivered 75 engineering vehicles and testing and mileage accumulation is ongoing in several cities throughout the US starting in mid April. Uber and Nuro employees are now able to test the end to end customer experience, including ordering a robotaxi within the Uber app and choosing from select destinations for drop off. Our partners at Nuro have also received approval from the California DMV for driverless testing of the Lucid Gravity in the state, making it one of the only a handful of vehicles that have received such approval. This is a key step in paving the way for launching commercial autonomous operations later this year. Looking forward, we are targeting the following milestones as we track toward commercial robotaxi operations in late 2026. This quarter Lucid will start our production validation builds which are intended to reflect our production intent, design and some of the key robotaxi features like exterior beaconing for customers, interior cameras and consumer interfaces. This build is expected to be completed in Q3 and allows us to begin more comprehensive end to end testing with our partners as well as homologation testing and validation. And following the completion of testing in Q3, we anticipate starting regular production of robotaxi vehicles for commercial sale in early Q4 at M1. As you can see, we are well on our way to achieving our goals with our Robo taxi program and commercial launch is on track for late 2026. In parallel, we continue to expand advanced driver assistance features across our consumer vehicles. Over time, we expect these features to become an increasingly important source of recurring revenue, with subscription based offerings being launched starting in 2027. In closing, Q1 highlighted areas where we still need to improve execution and we are taking clear actions to address them. I’d like to close with a few personal words. It has been a privilege to serve as interim CEO. We delivered two years of consecutive record quarters when it comes to deliveries until the end of 2025. We ramped the gravity throughout 2025, resulting in a production increase of about 100% last year. We’ve navigated real headwinds and the team’s ability to keep moving through them is something I’m proud of. We sharpened and expanded our strategy with a clear and capital efficient approach to provide leading autonomy solutions both for robotaxis and personally owned vehicles. We made meaningful progress across our partnerships, including expanded commitments from both PIF and Uber. I’m confident in this team, in Silvio’s leadership and in where Lucid is headed, and I’m looking forward to continue to contribute as Chief Operating Officer. With that, let me hand over to Tufik.
Tufik Busid (Chief Financial Officer)
Thank you Marc. I will walk you through the financial results for the quarter, the structural drivers behind them, and how recent actions position us to execute against the framework laid out at investor day Q1 was disrupted by a temporary stop sale, but the underlying business held and in March orders and deliveries rebounded with roughly similar units delivered and lower regulatory credit. Sales revenue grew by approximately 20% year over year to $282 million in Q1 driven primarily by mix and pricing effects from Graviti. Let me give you the context that makes this number more useful for thinking about Q2 and the rest of the year. We produced 5,500 vehicles in the quarter but delivered 3,093. This gap reflects a combination of the impact of the temporary gravity stop sale, during which finished vehicles set in inventory pending validation rather than converting to revenue and segment contraction. A key highlight of the quarter was Uber’s expanded vehicle commitment and increased investment in lucid. It matters for three reasons. It improves long term revenue visibility, it de risks the volume ramp into the mid size era, and it validates our vehicle platform as the reference point for commercial autonomy deployment. This is a durable addition to the capital structure and to the revenue outlook. Not a one time transaction. Gross margin for the quarter was minus 110.4% versus negative 80.7% in Q4 and negative 97.2% in Q1 a year ago. I want to be precise about the work because the composition matters more than the headline. Three factors drove the sequential lower delivery volume against a largely fixed manufacturing cost base under absorption of fixed cost and large regulatory credit revenue in Q4 that didn’t repeat in Q1. Partially offsetting these were IEEPA tariff refunds and a lower inventory write down versus the prior quarter. These costs were tied directly to the stop sale. With that resolve they don’t carry forward. What remains and what we are focused on is the structural trajectory which includes as shared at Investor day, an average of 50% to 60% reduction in unit cost over the coming years. While we saw unit cost spike during the quarter driven by temporary disruption, it trended back towards the targeted trajectory in March. As volumes scale into the second half and with the launch of the mid sized vehicle platform, we expect continued structural improvement in in unit economics. I want to be clear. The underlying midterm trajectory of unit cost improvement that we described at Investor day remains intact and Q1 does not alter it. Turning to operating expenses, this totaled approximately $678 million for the quarter. R&D was $336 million down sequentially from $361 million reflecting program level sequencing. Even as we continue to found the mids and our autonomy stack, SGA increased $22 million sequentially to $304 million primarily driven by discrete items including a prior quarter provision reversal. Excluding these items underlying SGNA was broadly stable. Year over year SGNA increased $92 million with the comparison impacted by a $35 million non cash benefit in the prior year related to the reversal of stock based compensation. These numbers also don’t yet capture the $500 million in saving expected from our recently announced headcount actions over the next three years with the near term impact most significant. Taken together, our posture on operating expenses is straightforward protect the investments that build long term competitive advantage, mid size Autonomy software and drive discipline everywhere else. Net loss for the quarter was approximately $1 billion compared to $366 million in the first quarter of 2025. The increase reflects the gross margin dynamics. We discussed continued investment in the business, particularly the mid sized platform and higher SGNA with the year over year comparison impacted by a discrete benefit in the prior year. Importantly, a significant portion of the year over year change is driven by non cash and non operating Items including a $274 million unfavorable change in the fair value of derivative liabilities related to movements in our stock price as well as lower interest income and higher interest expense and as mentioned, it does not reflect the benefits of our recent headcount actions. No more recently launched cost takeout initiatives. Net loss in any quarter reflects non cash and non operating items that move significantly with our stock price. The operating loss and cash consumption metrics give a cleaner read on trajectory. Our focus remains on improving operating leverage as we scale volumes and continue to drive cost discipline across the business. Turning to liquidity and capital structure, we ended the quarter with approximately $700 million in cash and cash equivalent and total liquidity of approximately $3.2 billion. Subsequent to quarter end we executed a series of transactions that strengthened our balance sheet. $200 million of equity investment of common stock from Uber, $300 million from a registered common stock offering and $550 million in convertible preferred stock from PIF. In addition, PIF and LUCID announced an amendment to our delayed draw term loan providing greater flexibility and approximately $2 billion of available liquidity following a $500 million draw on April 1 giving effect to the capital raise and delayed draw term loan (DDTL) increase. Total liquidity would have been approximately $4.7 billion at quarter end. This extends our operating Runway into the second half of 2027 and gives us the flexibility to fund Gravity Ramp M2 construction and launch preparation and continued investment in the mid sized program and autonomy stack. On the question of DILUTION which I know is on investor minds. The recent financing was structured deliberately to balance liquidity needs against dilution considerations. The comfortable preferred structure with PIF reflects that balance, as does the sizing of the common equity component. We will continue to evaluate all financing options, including the public markets, when the appropriate conditions materialize and our bias is toward disciplined capital deployment and with opportunistic raises. The strategic stockholder base around this company, anchored by PIF and now meaningfully reinforced by Uber, gives us a structural advantage in how we think about capital over the medium term. Now on working capital and inventory, we also expect to see benefits to cash flow driven by improvements to working capital. Inventory stood at approximately 1.47 billion at quarter end, up from approximately $1.1 billion at the prior quarter and elevated by the stop sale buildup. As deliveries normalize through the year and we draw down that inventory, you should expect a higher conversion into cash. Beyond the stop sale normalization, we are tightening production to delivery alignment as an ongoing operating discipline. The new production reporting methodology, which I will cover in a moment, supports that by improving transparency on the conversion step. We took over $200 million in inventory impairments in Q1. Going forward, we expect those to decline and as inventory reduces through the year, we expect to benefit from impairment releases. Now I mentioned our new production reporting methodology. I want to take a moment on this change to how we report production. Starting this quarter, we are moving our production metric to a process complete definition, meaning we count a vehicle once it has completed the factory gating process, regardless of whether it ships as a complete unit or in a semi knockdown form. This change better reflects true quarterly production and reduces the volatility that the prior methodology introduced due to shipment logistics. It has no impact on inventory or days on hand reporting, both of which remain based on finished deliverable vehicles. The effect for investors is greater comparability with peers and a cleaner signal on underlying operational cadence. Under the new methodology, the normal auto industry seasonality Q2 strongest based on working days, Q1 and Q4 softer due to holidays and planned shutdowns, will appear more visibly in our reported numbers. Now let me address our outlook and guidance. With Silvio now on board and conducting his review of the business, we are suspending our prior guidance and will provide a full updated outlook at our Q2 earnings call. I want to be clear this is a governance decision. Near term demand conditions remain uneven and we are managing our production cadence accordingly. Our 2026 objective is unchanged. We continue to work to closely align production with demand to avoid excess inventory we are not constrained on capacity. We are constrained by our own discipline not to build inventory ahead of demand. As market conditions develop, we will scale production accordingly. We have launched a company wide program to sharpen operational efficiency, reduce costs and concentrate capital on the highest return opportunities. Q1 cash performance was affected by the stop sale action and the associated inventory reset which we expect to normalize as we move forward. We are focused on restoring consistent cash generation and building a more durable operating foundation. Production of our first mid sized vehicle is expected to ramp throughout 2027 and our Lucid Gravity Robotaxi program in partnership with Uber and Nuro remains on schedule for launch in late 2026. In closing, to put the quarter in perspective, we strengthened our balance sheet, expanded the strategic partnership that improves long term visibility and are implementing reporting changes that improve transparency. A temporary stop saleing in February was resolved and we have taken action to address the root cause. The Investor Day framework holds the path to profitability runs through scale from mid size cost reduction to M2 and improved mix and operating leverage. Q1 does not change that trajectory. It reinforces the importance of disciplined execution and that is where our focus is. The fundamentals of this business, the technology, the product and the strategic position we have built are intact. We are managing this period with discipline and we intend to emerge from it in a stronger competitive position. With that, let me turn it over to the operator for your questions.
OPERATOR
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session by taking questions submitted to the Safe Technology platform.
Saravanar
Our first question comes from Saravanar. How does management plan to restore shareholder confidence and address concerns about bankruptcy or potential? Take private scenario first.
Robbie S
All right, our next question comes from Robbie S. What is Lucid going to turn a profit? What is the plan.
Crystal
All right, the next question comes from Crystal. Mr. Based on your current cash burn rate, how many quarters of Runway does Lucid have without raising additional capital? And what specific milestones must be met before then to avoid dilution?
OPERATOR
That concludes the questions from the SAI Technologies platform. Now we’ll turn it over to the operator for live questions. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen. As a reminder to ask the question, please press START 11 on your telephone, then wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press Start one one again, please stand by while we compile the Q and A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Michael Ward with Citigroup. Your line is open.
Michael Ward (Equity Analyst)
Thank you very much. Good afternoon everyone. Can you share any volume targets for M2 for 2027? It sounds like it’s going to be a gradual type launch throughout the year. And I’m just wondering if the launch is better than expected. Does that liquidity take you into 2028? The targets on the volume we actually revealed at the investor day and they have not changed, so. They have not changed. No, no. We are really laser focused on that ramp. Okay. And then the second thing I would ask is, as it relates to the Robotaxis, are the volume deliveries to Uber depending on them getting certified or is there some sort of a schedule for those volume numbers to start to accelerate? Well, it’s basically actually Nuro getting the certification, as we just mentioned. They make very good. Yeah, very good progress on that. So we are on track with this. I mean still you have to have final certification to be able to do this. For instance, when we start in the Bay Area here in California. But so far even all the development and the certifications are moving as we expected. Good news. Thank you very much.
OPERATOR
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Percoco with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.
Andrew Percoco
Great. Thanks so much for taking the questions. Maybe if I can start out on the free cash flow expectations and just general commentary around having sufficient liquidity through or at least until the second half of 2027, can you just maybe help provide a little bit more context around what some of the underlying assumptions are within that? I understand that you guys are pulling the delivery guidance for the year for some governance reasons, but if there’s anything you can kind of provide in terms of what your underlying assumptions are around demand, that would be super helpful. Thank you.
OPERATOR
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ben Callo with Baird. Your line is open.
Ben Callo
Hey, thanks for taking my question. Just maybe the first one, could you maybe talk more about the sales partnerships, which I guess will be very important, especially as you introduce the midsize vehicle. You mentioned one in Europe.
OPERATOR
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Andrea shepherd with Cantor Fitzgerald. Your line is open.
Andrea Shepherd
Hey everyone. Good afternoon and thank you so much for taking our questions. Congratulations on the quarter and just wanted to maybe take a brief moment to thank Mark and congratulate him on all his great efforts over the past two years. First question, I just wanted to clarify on the guidance. So just to be clear, you’ll give us an update in Q2 regarding the production guidance as well as the CAPEX guidance. But just to be clear as well, the midsize timing, robotaxi timing and also the medium term goals, those are all on track and unchanged. Just wanted to clarify. Thank you.
OPERATOR
Thank you. As A reminder, ladies and gentlemen, that Star one one to ask the question. Please stand by for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of James Piccarello with BNP Paribus. Your line is open.
Jake
Hey guys, this is Jake on for James. First, could you give us some idea of the split between the gravity and air deliveries in the first quarter and approximately how many units were pushed from the first quarter into the second by the stop sale? All right, thank you. And then thinking a little bit longer term, you guys are targeting break even free cash by the end of the decade. Right now your 4.7 billion in liquidity gets you into the second half of 2027. Is there any way to think about your total liquidity need to get, you know, from the second half of 2027 till 2029 or 2030? Thank you. Thanks, guys.
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