Lucid Group Stock Is Down 98%. Is It Finally Time to Buy?

The emergence of electric vehicles (EVs), largely thanks to Tesla's success, ignited investor interest in other early-stage EV companies. Lucid Group (NASDAQ: LCID) showed significant promise, and the Lucid Air, a premium sedan and its first model, garnered industry praise.

Unfortunately, Lucid has struggled to grow its sales enough to operate profitably. The company has steadily burned cash for years, weighing on the stock as management continuously diluted shareholders to raise funds.

Today, Lucid stock is down 98% from its high, a deep hole that few stocks recover from. But could now finally be the time to buy?

Image source: The Motley Fool.

A new partnership could be a game changer, and adds to some positive momentum

Lucid recently announced a deal with Nuro and Uber Technologies to supply vehicles for a global robotaxi program. Lucid will provide at least 20,000 of its Lucid Gravity SUVs to Uber over six years, which will function as robotaxis using Nuro's autonomous driving technology.

It's another potential on-ramp to help Lucid grow its sales volumes, which was already gaining momentum. Lucid produced 17,840 vehicles in 2025, roughly doubling its 2024 output, helped by the launch of the Lucid Gravity.

Additionally, Lucid is gearing up to launch the Lucid Earth, a more price-competitive midsize SUV that will start below $50,000. Lucid has lived in the premium segment thus far, and, just as Tesla's Model 3 did, the Earth represents a tremendous opportunity to break into the mainstream market. The potential cost efficiencies gained from selling more vehicles, even a cheaper model, could transform the business.

Why it still might be too early to buy the stock

It's only natural for investors to have trust issues with a stock that has performed so poorly for so long. As promising as the Uber deal and the upcoming Lucid Earth are, the company must hit home runs with both to turn the stock's lousy trajectory around.

The cold reality is that Lucid is still hemorrhaging cash. With -$3.8 billion in free cash flow over the past four quarters on $1.35 billion in sales, Lucid is going to need to sell a ton of vehicles to stop the bleeding, let alone turn a consistent profit.

LCID Revenue (TTM) data by YCharts

And despite the stock's sharp decline, shares still trade at a price-to-sales ratio of 2.4 times trailing-12-month sales. Although Lucid trades at a lower valuation than Tesla, the latter is deep into robotics, which makes it difficult to compare their valuations. Lucid's valuation still makes it one of the most expensive automotive stocks on the market.

Rather than rushing into shares on a positive headline, investors would be wise to let Lucid string together a few solid quarters of sales growth and shrinking cash losses before trusting the stock with your hard-earned capital.

Justin Pope has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Tesla and Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.