Lucid Group (LCID -0.23%) makes some of the best-looking electric vehicles in the U.S. They've won accolades from automotive publications, and offer some of the EV world's longest battery ranges.
So you might assume the EV start-up would have a rapidly rising share price to boot. But that's not the case. Lucid's shares have plunged by 86% over the past three years, while the S&P 500 has gained 41%.
With its shares trading for less than $3, is Lucid stock a buy now?
Image source: Lucid.
Buyers may be losing their appetite for EVs
The least expensive Lucid Air sedan has a starting price of about $70,000, and the only available version of its new Gravity SUV starts at nearly $95,000. That's 18% and 60% more expensive than the average transaction price for a new EV, respectively.
Lucid's luxury EVs aren't necessarily for the average buyer, so one could argue that it's fine that they cost so much. The problem is that overall demand for EVs is slowing in the U.S. A recent survey found that only 16% of Americans are interested in buying an EV, down from 21% at this time last year.
Their cost is likely a factor. Interest rates remain relatively high and President Trump's tariffs are adding to manufacturers' expenses. Lucid's interim CEO, Marc Winterhoff, said recently that the company's gross margin headwind from those tariffs will be in the range of 8% to 15%. That could eventually push its vehicle prices even higher.
The political climate is shifting away from EVs
Part of the reason why demand for EVs has weakened is that charging infrastructure still is not ubiquitous across the U.S., and it will take years to build it out. President Trump is also hampering that process, as he has paused the distribution of $3 billion in funding that Congress allotted to the states to support their efforts to install more electric vehicle charging stations.
Republicans are also trying to eliminate federal EV tax credits that were worth up to $7,500 for new electric vehicle purchases. The version of Trump's "One, Big, Beautiful Bill" that recently passed in the House axed the tax credit; its fate in the Senate is unclear. Lucid's vehicles are now too expensive to qualify for the credit, but the company compensated for that by cutting its sticker prices by $7,500.
Automakers' management teams often make decisions on how to invest in their companies based on the political climate. And for Lucid and other EV makers, things just don't look good right now. With President Trump seemingly set against helping the electric vehicle market expand, automakers are on their own in trying to convince the general public to buy their vehicles.
The result will likely be fewer incentives to buy EVs and, therefore, less interest among some buyers.
Lucid is trying to find its footing at a difficult time
While the company has a good product, there are too many uncertainties right now in the EV industry for investors to be bullish about Lucid, or any EV stocks for that matter. I still think EVs are the future of the automotive industry, but it's taking much longer for them to be successful than many people anticipated.
The fact of the matter is that Lucid's vehicles are expensive, and in a time when interest rates are elevated compared to what consumers have grown used to, costs are rising because of tariffs, U.S. government supports for the EV industry are being removed, and there's plenty of economic uncertainty ahead, finding interested buyers for them becomes meaningfully harder.
That doesn't mean Lucid is doomed, but I think it would be better for potential investors to wait and see how some of these uncertainties and headwinds shake out before buying the company's stock.
