Latest news with #NickTwork
The Verge
a day ago
- Automotive
- The Verge
Lucid reveals off-road version of Gravity SUV, which it has definitely sold more than 9 of
On Friday, Lucid Motors introduced an off-road version of its Gravity SUV, a few hours after shooting down a report that it had only sold 9 of the luxury EV in the first six months. The off-road concept includes redesigned front and rear fascias, improved approach and departure angles, a widened track, lifted ride height, and custom wheels with all-terrain tires. But it was the automaker's forceful renunciation of Automotive News' report that it had sold less than 10 Gravity SUVs in the first six months of production that drew the most attention. The outlet cited S&P Global Mobility registration data to back up its claim. Nick Twork, Lucid' VP for communication, called the report 'completely inaccurate,' adding that even though Lucid doesn't provide an exact breakdown of Gravity sales, 'the real number is well into the 3-digit range.' The company's top executives acknowledged during a recent earnings call that supply chain constraints, including an industry-wide magnet shortage, were improving and that deliveries were expected to pick up. Twork said that the Gravity was expected to make up the bulk of the company's sales in the second half of the from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Andrew J. Hawkins Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Electric Cars Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All News Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Transportation
The Verge
17-07-2025
- Automotive
- The Verge
Uber to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Lucid and Nuro in massive robotaxi deal
Uber plans to make 'multi-hundred-million dollar investments' in both Nuro and Lucid as part of a massive new robotaxi deal that was just announced. The three companies are linking up to deploy '20,000 or more' robotaxis in the US over the next six years. The vehicles will be Lucid's new Gravity SUV, equipped with autonomous technology developed by Nuro, and available exclusively on Uber's app. The fleet will be owned by Uber or a third-party fleet management partner and the first vehicles will launch in as-yet-to-be-determined US city in 2026. 'This is a very, very big deal,' Dave Ferguson, co-founder and president of Nuro, said in an interview. 'In terms of the scale and the hard commitments and the meat behind it, it is by far the biggest partnership deal that Uber has announced or done.' 'This is a very, very big deal.' Uber is investing $300 million in Lucid, a spokesperson for the automaker, Nick Twork, confirmed. The investment in Nuro will be 'significantly more than that,' Ferguson said, though he declined to share an exact figure. As part of the deal, Uber will take a seat on Nuro's board of directors. Uber's decision to pour hundreds of millions of dollars in both companies underscores its desire to become a clearinghouse for both electric and autonomous vehicles of all stripes. The ridehail company has said it wants to use its size and scale to aid in the proliferation of autonomous vehicles across the world. It has struck over a dozen deals over the past year with a variety of robotaxi and delivery robot companies, including Waymo. In choosing the sumptuously designed Gravity as its robotaxi platform, Uber will likely price this particular service in the upper tier like Uber Black. Lucid makes two luxury EVs, the Lucid Air sedan which starts at $69,900, and the Gravity SUV which starts at $79,900. In the current shaky EV market, Lucid is a niche player, delivering just 3,309 vehicles in the second quarter of 2025. The company is majority-owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, and it operates an assembly plant in the oil-rich nation. This is Nuro's first major licensing deal after pivoting away from designing and building its own self-driving delivery vehicles. The California-based company said last year that licensing its autonomous tech would be its main focus moving forward. Nuro's current fleet of vehicles, which operates in California and Texas, has traveled over 1 million miles autonomously without any major safety incidents. Uber's investment comes at a crucial time for Nuro and Lucid, both of which have struggled with layoffs and other financial difficulties in recent years. Donald Trump's tariffs, as well as his administration's move to eliminate Biden-era EV incentives, have put enormous pressure on the auto industry. And self-driving cars have taken longer and proven more costly to develop than initially promised. But even as most AV investments have dried up, Nuro continues to find financial support. The company is currently valued at $6 billion after raising $106 million in its latest funding round last April. Lucid, which is publicly traded, has a market cap of approximately $7 billion. Uber's investment comes at a crucial time for Nuro and Lucid. Nuro will design the Level 4 autonomous technology to power the robotaxis. Lucid's workers will install the various sensors and hardware on the Gravity assembly line, after which it'll be updated with Nuro's software and commissioned by Uber. Nuro will also develop a safety case 'across dozens of categories' using simulation, closed-course testing, and supervised on-road testing. A prototype autonomous Gravity is currently being tested at Nuro's Las Vegas proving grounds, which Ferguson said took seven weeks to develop. 'That is a real testament to the quality of the engineering on the Lucid side,' he said. 'They designed these platforms to be L3 capable because they were intending on having that as a future product for their customers. And so, they were really nice to integrate all of our sensing compute onto and to turn into self-driving vehicles.' (L3, or Level 3 automation means the vehicle can drive itself in most situations, but still requires human supervision. Level 4 vehicles can driver fully autonomously in certain environments without human supervision. Lucid just introduced a hands-free driving system for highways.) In many ways, the size of this deal — 'a minimum' of 20,000 vehicles, but expected to be 'much, much more,' Ferguson said — recalls some of the early promises from autonomous vehicle developers about tens of thousands of vehicles on the road in just a few short years. Those early assumptions turned out to be way off, and most companies are still struggling to deliver even just a few self-driving cars. Today, Waymo is operating less than 2,000 vehicles in a handful of markets as part of a commercial robotaxi service. Tesla has a few dozen robotaxis in a small part of Austin, Texas. The rest are still in beta and still not open to the public — including the self-driving trucks, which have had their own problems. Ferguson said that's all about to change. Nuro has been operating driverless vehicles for several years now, albeit at low speeds and while avoiding highways. But he says the time is right to move on to the next level, and with Uber and Lucid in its corner, he's confident they'll reach these milestones. 'It's really just a function of, at what level is the autonomy at and how many markets can it sustain,' Ferguson said. 'Within those markets, these are big, big numbers and opportunities. And the vehicles will follow.
TechCrunch
15-05-2025
- Automotive
- TechCrunch
Lucid's record quarter got a lift from rental sales and company leases
Lucid Motors set a company record for deliveries in the first quarter of 2025, shipping 3,109 EVs to customers in North America, Europe, and Saudi Arabia. It appears that a new company car program and sales to rental fleets helped it get there. According to a footnote in Lucid Motors' latest regulatory filing, it sold the equivalent of around 300 cars to what it refers to as 'rental companies' in the quarter. Nick Twork, a spokesperson for Lucid Motors, said in an email that despite the use of the term, the 'vast majority' of the vehicles referred to in the footnote were sold to leasing companies and leased back to the automaker as part of a revamped company car program. 'As part of the normal course of business, we leverage fleet transactions whenever we see a good opportunity that is in the best interest of our business,' he said. The first-quarter sales to leasing and rental companies allowed Lucid Motors to beat the number of cars it delivered in the fourth quarter of 2024 by 100 vehicles, marking the fifth consecutive quarter that the company's deliveries increased. This is despite the fact that the beginning of the calendar year is often a tough stretch for automotive sales; Industry leader Tesla and Rivian, for instance, each saw dramatic drops in deliveries to start the year. Lucid's stretch of record quarters follows years of the company struggling to establish a market for its luxury sedan, the Air. The company has pinned high hopes on its first SUV, the Gravity, which it expects to ship in greater volumes in the second half of this year. Interim CEO Marc Winterhoff celebrated the milestone at the beginning of the company's earnings call last week. 'Many of our customers continue to tell us that once they experience a Lucid, it's hard to go back,' he said. Parsing the numbers It's difficult to say exactly how many cars Lucid has sold to leasing and rental companies. The company declined to break down the numbers made available in its regulatory filings; To date, it has only reported the dollar value of vehicles sold in this way. Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you've built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | REGISTER NOW Lucid said in the first-quarter filing that it sold $27.2 million worth of vehicles to 'rental companies' in the first quarter. Dividing Lucid's revenue for the quarter ($235 million) by the deliveries (3,109) suggests the company's average selling price in the period could be around $75,590, which implies it sold as many as around 360 EVs to rental and leasing companies. Whatever the exact number, it seems to be an uptick. For reference, the company wrote that it sold $34.7 million worth of cars to rental companies in all of 2024. In a prior filing, Lucid said it sold $9.1 million worth in 2023. While the sales may have helped the quarter's delivery tally, they do not appear to have had an impact on how much money the company made. Lucid says elsewhere in the regulatory filing that it does not immediately book revenue on the cars it sells to rental companies because it's obligated to repurchase those vehicles at a later date. Lucid only books revenue at that point — and even then, it only books the difference between the initial sale price and a repurchase price agreed upon with the rental companies as revenue. It's no secret Lucid has been working with rental companies. The company announced in October 2024 that Germany-based Sixt was starting to use Lucid Airs in its fleet of rental vehicles. It also has a deal with Enterprise that has been less publicized. But until the latest regulatory filing it's been hard to quantify how much impact the rental sales were having on Lucid's overall delivery figures. Assessing the customer demand for Lucid's vehicles is crucial because the company's first EV, the Air, has struggled to live up to expectations for a number of reasons. The company started selling the Air in 2021 at a time when sedans had fallen out of fashion in North America. Lucid initially focused on the most expensive versions of the Air across the first two years of sales. As those sales slowly climbed, Tesla began slashing prices on its own vehicles in an effort to maintain the growth it had promised Wall Street. Those price cuts caused a domino effect for other automakers selling EVs. By the time Lucid started shipping the most affordable version of its sedan — the Air Pure — in late 2023, it made multiple price cuts to keep sales competitive. Former CEO Peter Rawlinson – who was replaced earlier this year after he stepped down from the role – said in 2023 that '[t]oo few people are aware of not just the car, but even the company.' Winterhoff, the interim CEO, has said since he took over that he wants to beef up Lucid's marketing efforts. The company spent $3.5 million on sales and marketing in the first quarter, and on last week's call he said investors should expect that to increase.
