Lucid (LCID) orders are surging as former Tesla drivers flock to other EV brands
With Tesla owners looking for another option, one EV brand is taking advantage. Lucid Motors (LCID) CEO said the company is seeing a “dramatic uptick” in orders from Tesla drivers. Over the past two months, 50% of orders were from former Tesla owners.
Lucid orders rise from former Tesla owners
It’s no secret by now that Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk has caused an uproar. Not just among owners but in the general EV community. Bullets have been shot into Tesla stores, people are vandalizing and burning Tesla vehicles, and these are just a few examples.
Musk’s antics are now driving Tesla owners to look for other EV brands. At least one rival is seeing significantly more owners looking to trade in.
After showing off the brand’s first electric SUV, Lucid Motors’ interim CEO Marc Winteroff told Fox Business that the company has seen a “dramatic uptick over the past two months” in orders from former Tesla drivers.
Tesla owners have “always been a source” for Lucid as another EV brand. However, more and more Tesla drivers have been looking to make the switch over the past few months.
Right now, “50% of all of the orders we have are from former Tesla owners,” according to Lucid’s CEO. When asked why owners are ditching their Teslas, Winteroff simply said, “It’s what you mentioned,” referring to the “negative feeling about Elon” and the lack of new vehicles (outside of the Cybertruck). Many are “looking for an option to not continue having a Tesla,” Winteroff added.
The comments come as Lucid ramps up deliveries of its first electric SUV, the Graivty. Winteroff said during the “celestial arrival” of the Gravity last week in NYC that deliveries will resume by the end of April.
Lucid’s Gravity SUV is available in the Grand Touring trim, starting at $94,900. Later this year, Lucid will launch the Gravity Touring starting at $79,900.
Winteroff also spoke about the impact of Trump’s recent tariff hikes, explaining that Lucid’s vehicles are fully assembled in Arizona. Lucid builds everything from the battery modules and packs to the e-motors in the US.
Electrek’s Take
Elon Musk is hurting the Tesla brand, and it’s becoming evident. Lucid is just one example of a rival company that is seeing more Tesla drivers looking to ditch the brand.
According to a recent YouGov and Yahoo News poll, 67% of Americans would no longer consider buying or leasing a Tesla vehicle.
Most blamed Elon Musk as the reason. Of those who would not consider a Tesla, 37% said it was fully or partly the reason, while another 20% said it was the whole reason. The survey revealed that Americans’ view on Musk is turning negative, with 55% saying they had an unfavorable opinion of Tesla’s CEO.
With Tesla’s first quarter deliveries due out this week, we will likely see more of the damaging impacts as analysts expect what could be its worst performance in two years.
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In a joint statement, French and German economists have called on governments to adopt “a common approach” to decarbonize European trucking fleets – and they’re calling for a focus on fully electric trucks, not hydrogen.
France and Germany are the two largest economies in the EU, and they share similar challenges when it comes to freight decarbonization. The two countries also share a border, and the traffic between the two nations generates major cross-border flows that create common externalities between the two countries.
At the same time, the EU’s transport sector has struggled to reduce emissions at the same rate as other industries – and road freight in particular is a major contributor to harmful carbon emissions issue due to that industry’s heavy reliance on diesel-powered trucks.
And for once, it seems like rail isn’t a viable option:
While rail remains competitive mainly for heavy, homogeneous goods over long distances. Most freight in Europe is indeed transported over distances of less than 200 km and involves consignment weights of up to 30 tonnes (GCEE, 2024) In most such cases, transportation by rail instead of truck is not possible or not competitive. Moreover, taking into account the goods currently transported in intermodal transport units over distances of more than 300 km, the modal shift potential from road to rail would be only 6% in Germany and less than 2% in France.
That leaves trucks – and, while numerous government incentives currently exist to promote the parallel development of both hydrogen and battery electric vehicle infrastructures, the study is clear in picking a winner.
“Policies should focus on battery-electric trucks (BET) as these represent the most mature and market-ready technology for road freight transport,” reads the the FGCEE statement. “Hence, to ramp-up usage of BET public funding should be used to accelerate the roll-out of fast-charging networks along major corridors and in private depots.”
The appeal was signed by the co-chair of the advisory body on the German side is the chairwoman of the German Council of Economic Experts, Monika Schnitzer. Camille Landais co-chairs the French side. On the German side, the appeal was signed by four of the five experts; Nuremberg-based energy economist Veronika Grimm (who also sits on the National Hydrogen Council, which is committed to promoting H2 trucks and filling stations) did not sign.
You can read an English version of the CAE FGCEE joint statement here.
Electrek’s Take
MAN Trucks’ CEO famously said that it was “impossible” for hydrogen to compete with BEVs, and even committed to building 200 hydrogen-powered semi truck to prove out that hypothesis.
He’s not alone. MAN’s board member for research and development, Frederik Zohm, said that the company is the one saying hydrogen still has years to go. “(MAN) continues to research fuel cell technology based on battery electrics,” he said, in a statement quoted by Hydrogen Insight, before another board member added that, “we (MAN) expect that, in the future, we will be able to best serve the vast majority of our customers’ transport applications with battery-electric trucks.”
With companies like Volvo and Renault and now Mercedes racking up millions of miles on their respective battery electric semi truck fleets, it’s no longer even close. EV is the way.
SOURCE | IMAGES: CAE FGCEE; via Electrive.
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GE Vernova has produced over half the turbines needed for SunZia Wind, which will be the largest wind farm in the Western Hemisphere when it comes online in 2026.
GE Vernova has manufactured enough turbines at its Pensacola, Florida, factory to supply over 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of the turbines needed for the $5 billion, 2.4 GW SunZia Wind, a project milestone. The wind farm will be sited in Lincoln, Torrance, and San Miguel counties in New Mexico.
At a ribbon-cutting event for Pensacola’s new customer experience center, GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik noted that since 2023, the company has invested around $70 million in the Pensacola factory.
The Pensacola investments are part of the announcement GE Vernova made in January that it will invest nearly $600 million in its US factories and facilities over the next two years to help meet the surging electricity demands globally. GE Vernova says it’s expecting its investments to create more than 1,500 new US jobs.
Vic Abate, CEO of GE Vernova Wind, said, “Our dedicated employees in Pensacola are working to address increasing energy demands for the US. The workhorse turbines manufactured at this world-class factory are engineered for reliability and scalability, ensuring our customers can meet growing energy demand.”
SunZia Wind and Transmission will create US history’s largest clean energy infrastructure project.
Read more: The largest clean energy project in US history closes $11B, starts full construction
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