As Tesla EV Sales Dip, Lucid Tightens Grip

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Last Updated on: 11th April 2025, 11:06 am

With its EV sales slipping in the US and elsewhere, Tesla has decided that a relaunch of the brand in Saudi Arabia will help refresh its sagging image. How’s that again? The Saudi-backed US automaker Lucid already beat Tesla to the punch, opening a factory in King Abdullah Economic City in Mecca Province back in 2023. Meanwhile, Lucid is also expanding its manufacturing footprint in Arizona, aiming to nudge Tesla farther down the EV sales market in the US. While the cat’s away….

Saudi Arabia, The New Hotspot For EV Sales

Tesla’s relaunch in Saudi Arabia is a big deal because the company has not had presence there for years, due to a kerfuffle over a controversial tweet issued by Tesla CEO Elon Musk all the way back in 2018.

For obvious reasons, Saudi Arabia has never been a particularly ripe market for EV sales, so the breakup did not have a noticeable impact on Tesla. The big question is why Tesla has suddenly decided that Saudi Arabia would be a great place to rev up its sales engine.

The answer is easy enough. The Kingdom has set an electrification goal for itself, aiming at 30% EV adoption by 2030 alongside plans to bring its EV charging network up to par.

Lucid Got There First

As widely reported by the Associated Press and other media, Tesla has launched a new showroom and service center in Riyadh to pitch the Model 3, Model Y, and Cybertruck. Pop-up stores are also planned for Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam.

If absence makes the heart grow fonder, Tesla could do very well in the Kingdom. But, it’s not going to be a walk in the park. The Chinese automaker Geely has already carved out a niche for its Riddara EVs in that market, and that automaker has expansion plans in the works for 2025.

Then there’s Lucid, which has been positioning its brand as a hometown hero of sorts partly on account of its backing from the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund. When PIF bankrolled Lucid in 2022, the plan included a factory in Saudi Arabia as well as one in the US (see more Lucid EV background here).

The Saudi Arabia factory enables Lucid to define its brand as a creator of high quality, high tech jobs in the Kingdom, and a centerpiece for innovation. The Saudi Arabia factory, AMP-2, began producing cars in 2023, using kits assembled at the Arizona facility. When AMP-2 is fully built out, 150,000 EVs will roll off its assembly line per year, destined for markets overseas as well as in Saudi Arabia.

Lucid Picks Up The Pieces Of Nikola’s Shattered Dreams

Meanwhile back in the US, on April 11, Lucid announced that it will carve out the BEV slice of the bankrupt truckmaker Nikola, which was auctioned off on April 10. Nikola received more attention for its ill-fated focus on Class 8 fuel cell trucks, but it also had a BEV branch. The company tried to launch its “Badger” battery-electric pickup truck with General Motors several years ago, an arrangement that evaporated in 2020.

Barring any unforeseen obstacles, Lucid will acquire Nikola’s two facilities in Arizona, the factory in Coolidge and its headquarters in Phoenix.

With the two buildings in hand, Lucid will add more than 884,000 square feet to its existing footprint in Arizona. “Most of this space is comprised of state-of-the-art manufacturing and warehousing buildings, which executes against Lucid’s prior planned expansion in Arizona,” the company notes.

“These facilities also include development equipment with extensive battery and environmental testing chambers, a full-size chassis dynamometer, machining equipment, and more,” they add.

Along with the hardware, Lucid also aims to avail itself of an instant workforce, offering positions to more than 300 former Nikola employees. “These offers will encompass various technical salaried and hourly positions including manufacturing engineering, software, assembly, vehicle testing, and warehouse support,” Lucid elaborates.

Lucid’s employee retention plan presents a sharp contrast to the goings-on at Elon Musk’s “DOGE,” a federal office credited with abruptly firing thousands of skilled federal workers. “We are delighted to extend employment offers to more than 300 former employees, who bring valuable industry experience, and together with our outstanding teams, will continue powering Lucid’s industry-leading innovation,” said Lucid Interim CEO Marc Winterhoff in a press statement.

More EV Sales In The USA

As for EV sales related to the Nikola acquisition, don’t hold your breath for a Lucid Class 8 battery-electric truck. The company currently offers the Air sedan and the newly launched Gravity SUV. Winterhoff also used the occasion of the Nikola announcement to remind everyone Lucid is preparing for its “upcoming midsize platform vehicles,” indicating that trucks of any sort are off the table, at least for now. If anything, the newly expanded operation in Arizona could enable Lucid to accelerate its plans for midsized EVs.

Rumors about those upcoming EVs began surfacing last fall, when the automotive media scooped plans that suggest the new platform is a crossover SUV to be named Earth, aimed at competing for EV sales against the Tesla Model Y, possibly as soon as model year 2026.

That’s going to be a tough row to hoe. Sagging sales aside, Tesla is still #1 in EV sales here in the US, with almost 50% of the US EV market. However, that won’t last for long if US car buyers follow the trajectory of their counterparts in Europe. EV sales in Europe have been surging this year, but not for Tesla, with the notable exception of the UK.

Tesla fans are pinning their hopes on the refreshed Model Y. That could yet prove to be a lifeline, but EV buyers in the US have already turned their attention to other brands.

On April 10, Cox Automotive took a look at EV sales reported by Kelley Blue Book, noting that almost 300,000 new EVs were sold in the US in Q1 2025. “Roughly 7.5% of total new-vehicle sales in the first quarter were electric vehicles, an increase from 7% a year earlier,” Cox summarized.

“But the EV growth story continues to center on market leader Tesla, which saw sales fall further in Q1, down nearly 9% from year-ago levels,” Cox added, while citing Acura, Audi, Chevrolet, Honda, and Porsche among other automakers that rode the wave of the EV buying spree.

Whether or not Tesla can win them back remains to be seen. The automaker had the zero emission mobility field practically all to itself for many years, but Musk’s ability to push EV sales in a competitive market was in question from the beginning. The unfolding Cybertruck disaster suggests that Tesla is incapable of moving past its basic models with Musk as CEO, and the “DOGE” fiasco demonstrates that he is no genius, after all.

Photo: The California startup Lucid Motors aims to boost its EV sales footprint with a newly expanded footprint for its operations in Arizona, along with a second factory in Saudi Arabia (courtesy of Lucid via CleanTechnica archive).