Lucid is an electric vehicle start-up with award-winning technology.
The company's production is still very small, and capital investment will remain high for years to come.
The electric vehicle market has grown rapidly over the last few years, with Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) going head-to-head with Chinese EV giant BYD Auto. Hidden beneath these two giants are a collection of smaller companies, such as Rivian (NASDAQ: RIVN) and Lucid (NASDAQ: LCID), which are still in start-up mode.
Lucid, in particular, has seen its stock price fall 98% from its peak, making it look very cheap. But is it worth buying?
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The good news is that Lucid is making material strides in its production levels. In 2025, the company nearly doubled its production volume and increased deliveries by over 70% in the fourth quarter. Lucid's electric vehicles also continue to win awards, suggesting its products are well respected. And the company continues to build out its business.
Image source: Getty Images.
The downside is that building an auto business is a capital-intensive, time-consuming effort. So while it is a huge success for Lucid to have produced 8,412 EVs in the fourth quarter of 2025, Tesla produced 434,358. Lucid is still far behind the industry leaders on the production front.
What's interesting is that Lucid's production is much closer to that of fellow start-up Rivian. Rivian produced 10,974 vehicles in the final quarter of 2025. Both companies have a lot of spending to do as they build out their respective automotive businesses. But there's a very important difference that you shouldn't ignore.
Rivian generated a gross profit in 2025. That's not the same as earnings, but it means that Rivian is generating more revenue from selling its cars than it costs to produce them. Lucid is still losing money on every vehicle it sells, with revenues of $1.35 billion in 2025 compared to cost of goods sold of $2.61 billion. While the company is planning to be cash flow positive by the end of the decade, it still has a material amount of work to do before it is anywhere near that point.
Lucid is only appropriate for aggressive investors. And even then, you will need to tread with caution. It operates in a highly competitive industry and, at this point, it is little more than a rounding error relative to its more established competitors on the production front. Despite building award-winning EVs, it is still far from clear that it will become a sustainably profitable business.
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Reuben Gregg Brewer has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.