Tesla sent shockwaves through the auto industry last week when it slashed prices across its lineup by as much as 21%. While the price cuts were steep, Tesla’s industry leading margins allowed it make such a drastic move, a luxury which many other automakers, and in particular automakers new to the market, do not have.
One of those fledgling automakers is Lucid, which has been forced to follow Tesla’s lead and is now offering a $7,500 discount on its Air luxury electric sedans. However the deal is only available when a customer leases an Air though Lucid Financial Services.
In an email sent to reservation holders on Friday, Lucid says the $7,500 discount comes in the form a capital cost reduction, which allows them to get a lower monthly payment on their leased Air sedan. That $7,500 discount matches the discount that many Tesla cars now receive from the IRA tax credit introduced this month. (via Lucid Forum)
A review of Lucid’s website by Drive Tesla shows this discount is available on Air sedans in the company’s existing inventory section of their website as well. This could bring the price of a Lucid Air Grand Touring down to as low as $131,500 USD.
This price however is still nearly $20,000 above the price of the Tesla Model S Plaid, which after last week’s price cuts is now available starting at $114,990 USD.
If the discount is applicable to their new entry-level Air Pure however, and by all appearances it should apply, then their entry-level offering will come in at $119,400, much closer but still nearly $5,000 above the Model S Plaid.
This isn’t the first discount Lucid has offered in order to try and sell more cars. Last year they were also offering employees $18,000 off their purchase of an Air. The company has also stripped down the Grand Touring variant to make some standard features optional, bringing the base price down $16,000.
All of this comes at a time when Lucid is seeing reservations being cancelled while they struggle to deliver cars to their customers. In 2022 they were just able to beat their already watered down production target of between 7,000 and 8,000 cars, producing 7,180 vehicles. However they were only able to deliver 4,369 (60%) of them throughout the year, leaving them with an inventory of 2,811 cars at the end of the year.
