Lucid Announces Plan to Raise Prices on June 1

• Prices for the Lucid Air rise between $10,000 and $15,000.
• Prospective buyers have until May 31 to place an order at current pricing.
• Annual production forecast stays steady at 12,000-14,000 vehicles.

Remember back in the day when an automaker announced pricing for a new vehicle, and the MSRP would generally stay consistent throughout the year? That may as well be ancient history, as supply chain issues have disrupted production and caused automakers to adopt ... creative ... solutions to keep dealer lots stocked. Sometimes it's reducing the number of powertrain options, removing features entirely, or making good old-fashioned price hikes, either to account for rising materials costs or capitalize on mismatched supply and demand curves.

As Rivian found out recently, there's a right way and a wrong way to announce these price increases. Lucid has told prospective buyers that it, too, will ask a higher price for future units of the Lucid Air electric luxury sedan, but it's going about it in a different way than Rivian. Here's what we know.

Base price increases, but reservations lock in pricing

Lucid will increase the price of the automaker's only vehicle, the Lucid Air, by $10,000 to $15,000 depending on trim level. The only model not affected is the recently announced Grand Touring Performance, which will top the range at $179,000.

*excluding destination fees

Lucid seems to have taken some notes from the backlash against Rivian when it announced its own price increases earlier this year. Rivian was in a similar situation to Lucid, with pricing that had been announced years prior and in a massively different automotive landscape. Rivian initially tried to stick existing reservation holders with a higher bill, which made a lot of customers unhappy. The decision was walked back by Rivian in the days after the announcement.

Lucid is giving prospective buyers fair warning, however, as the Air increases don't go into effect for another few weeks. As long as you place an order before June 1, the reservation will be held at the current price level. Anybody placing an order on or after June 1 will have to deal with inflated cost. The strategy seems to be working, as a thread on a Lucid forum has multiple posts with members noting that price increases were inevitable but expressing thanks that they have the opportunity to lock in pricing with some time to think about it.

Lucid confirms production forecast

The startup automaker has struggled to ramp up production, and it only delivered 360 new vehicles in total by the end of the first quarter of this year. In a steady upward march, there are now more than 30,000 reservations for the Lucid Air, up 5,000 since the end of February. We'd bet more than a few prospective customers who have been on the fence about placing a reservation will be spurred into action by the June 1 deadline too. The automaker reiterated that, barring any "extended disruptions," its production forecast will remain at 12,000-14,000 vehicles for the year.

With only a few hundred vehicles delivered so far, Lucid is banking on the idea that the majority of its 2022 production will come later in the year. And considering that Lucid says its Casa Grande, Arizona, plant has an annual production capacity of 30,000 units, it's theoretically possible that the automaker will fill all current pre-price bump orders by the end of the year.

Edmunds says

Check out the Edmunds review of the 2022 Lucid Air to see if it might be right for you. If so, make sure to get your order in before June 1, which is when prices for the Air will rise dramatically.