Lucid is an extremely confounding company. It makes, arguably, some of the best electric cars in the world. They are remarkably efficient and cleverly packaged. The company, though, is allergic to success and constantly fumbles the ball in the red zone. Now it’s delaying its much-needed midsize crossover. This is bad news and, at the same time, good news.
The Morning Dump will not be full of riddles and contradictions today, as the universe mostly makes sense. Subaru has three new or redesigned electric crossovers, courtesy of Toyota, and it’s costing about $9,000 per vehicle to move them off the lots. Honda, by getting rid of electric cars and by virtue of being a Japanese company, is reporting an increase in profits.
General Motors was one of the first automakers to make headway in China via its joint-venture with SAIC, and it sounds like that’ll continue for at least another 20 years.
Lucid CEO Says ‘We’re Not Going To Make The Mistake Of The Past’
Above is a photo of a Lucid Cosmos winter testing. I saw this vehicle, uncovered, earlier this year and was told it would debut before the end of the year. The camo sells the vehicle a little short as I think it’s an overall attractive shape. Also, ain’t no one seeing this car this year.
And no one, including the company’s new CEO Silvio Napoli, can even tell you when it’s exactly going to appear. Here’s what Napoli told CNBC:
“We’re not going to make the mistake of the past where products, great cars, were in fact tainted by launching before things were ready,” he said. “I think it’s going to be ’27. … Most likely the second half of ’27.”
That’s a long time. We’re in the second half of 2026 according to my abacus, which means that this car isn’t seeing the light of day for a while. This is a tough call, especially as the company reported an even bigger loss than expected ($3.30 per share versus the expected $2.46) last quarter. Selling a midsize EV is something that’s absolutely necessary if it wants to continue to exist alongside Cadillac, Tesla, and Rivian.
Also, yeah, this is the right call. Lucid is in the middle of what it calls an “operational reset” right now, and for good reason. The decision-making at the company has been extremely engineering-first, which is generally good, but something keeps getting lost in between engineering a great car and building something that works and people will buy.
For instance, the original Lucid Air looks great (in my view) and performs better than basically any other large electric car you can buy today in the United States from an efficiency standpoint. I drove one a great distance and was impressed with its performance and also flummoxed by all of its annoying flaws. The new Lucid Gravity also performs extremely well and it still has some major problems. For all its range, I think it would have been worth trading a little aero for something that looks a little less like a minivan (or more like a minivan, honestly). And then there’s the scary recall over improperly-welded seats.
Some of this is a double-standard as Tesla and Xiaomi have released cars that suffered from early recalls and delays. The difference is that those companies both have long track records of producing successful products.
“Lucid has leading technology, compelling products and deeply committed people, but potential is not performance,” said Napoli. “We are going back to basics, with a clear focus on cash, customers, and culture. We are focused on delivering on our four must win priorities, including our $1.4 billion cash flow improvement plan and the advancement of our Robotaxi, AMP-2, and Midsize programs, which will establish a strong foundation for Lucid’s next chapter.”
In addition to those four “must win priorities” (savings, robotaxi, AMP-2, midsize) the company also has three priorities? There’s so much leadership-speak gibberish it’s a little hard to keep track, but the other three priorities are: Cash and Cost, Customer and Quality, and Culture and Team.
And the eighth, unspoken priority, is to have fewer priorities going forward.
It Takes Subaru $9,000 In Spiffs To Move A Single New Electric Car
There are so many new Toyota-based Subaru EVs it’s almost hard to keep track of them all. There’s the Solterra, which is a Toyota bZ; there’s the Trailseeker, which is a bZ Woodland; the Getaway is a Highlander EV; and the Uncharted is a C-HR. Is that right? I’m like 87% sure that’s correct.
Given that Subaru was not exactly lighting up the world when it was selling a single EV, the logic of selling a bunch of seemingly overlapping crossovers is lost on me. It’s also lost on consumers, as Automotive News is reporting that it’s costing a lot of money to move these vehicles:
Subaru introduced two EVs in the U.S. in the period, adding the Uncharted and Trailseeker to the Solterra, on sale since 2022. Average spending on those increased to $9,155 for the Uncharted, $8,982 on the Trailseeker and $9,650 for the Solterra, according to Motor Intelligence.
Outback spiffs were just $3,036.
Subaru’s overall incentive level totaled below the industry average of $3,479 in April-June, but its 40 percent spending surge from the year before outpaced the wider market’s 4.4 percent rise.
Subaru reported a 44% drop in operating profit last quarter, and a lot of that is attributed to EV incentives (or spiffs). That’s not ideal.
Yen And The Art Of Motorcycle Profits
Honda has been a bit of a wobbly proposition lately as it recovers from an overinvestment in likely dead-end electric car projects. At the same time, Honda has a bunch of profitable hybrids and bikes, and it makes cars in Japan.
Quarterly profit reached a record thanks to Honda’s motorcycle business, which accounted for about ¥234 billion of the ¥531 billion for the period that ended in June. Analysts had been expecting ¥300 billion for the quarter. Meanwhile, its automobile business saw steady sales in North America but lost ground in China. Net sales rose 14% to ¥6.1 trillion.
“Honda’s efforts to improve its auto cost structure had already been bearing fruit, but the progress was obscured by battery EV losses and parts shortages,” said Bloomberg Intelligence senior auto analyst Tatsuo Yoshida. “The underlying improvement became much clearer in the first quarter.”
The company increased its guidance for the 2027 fiscal year, partially because it initially expected a yen of about 145 to the dollar, and instead it’ll probably be 155, which helps with exports.
GM-SAIC Will Keep Working Together Through 2047
GM is killing the Chevy brand in China as it focuses on Buick, Cadillac, and exporting cars it builds cheaply there to markets that are not Europe or the United States, as The Detroit News reports:
The Detroit automaker said on Tuesday the extended 50-50 joint venture will result in more vehicle-development work being done in the world’s largest auto market to appeal to local tastes.
The terms will also allow GM to ship Buicks and Cadillacs from China to the Middle East, Africa, South America, Mexico and elsewhere in Asia, starting with the exports of the China-developed Buick Electra series later this year, GM said.
SAIC said in a separate statement that the renewed partnership would allow China’s “local innovation to be shared globally.”
The initial partnership was formed in 1997 and allowed GM to reap huge profits in the country until automakers there got on their feet and started building successful EVs and hybrids.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
My daughter is aware, via Bill Nye the Science Guy, of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” which is a funny way to know that song. I turned on an essentials playlist for her in the car yesterday, and it was a reminder of how much I liked “In Bloom.”
The Big Question
What’s the most cursed car in history? What should have been delayed?
Top photo: Lucid
I still like Nirvana…they were very unique and have a great catalog which I like most of, including this song. They basically made grunge/revolutionized it; and although they made the hair metal bands’ popularity drop to 0 in an instant (which I still like a lot of those, especially the riffs/solos by the amazingly talented guitarists; and which some of those bands have had a huge comeback) I still think Kurt Cobain (RIP) was amazingly talented.
“What’s the most cursed car in history?”
CHRISTINE! I absolutely love that movie (have seen it a lot); recently I finally bought the book and literally (ha ha) just got done reading it today! It was so awesome and so similar to the movie; besides some changes here and there. Stephen King is one of my favorite authors along w/ Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child (co-authors) They are my favorite authors ever and I highly recommend them; especially the whole Pendergast series which we own. Cabinet of Curiosities is the best book I have ever read and if you haven’t read it; you are in for an absolutely amazing thriller that you will not want to put down and just can’t wait to see what happens next. See also: Still Life with Crows (the ending absolutely shocked me- but do not skip to the end- it’s worth it)
A car that clearly should have been delayed is the Renault Frégate. Launching without properly fiabilizing is a common french car industry sin, but in this case they were kind of forced by the threat of a “no new model” policy to be issued by the french government due to a war (Korea, if I recall well, even if we were not directly involved. French politics are often impenetrable) to make it one year earlier than they initially planned, and it was a catastrophy.
Tucker comes to mind as most cursed for a multitude of reasons.
Uh, isn’t this big news? The Outback shouldn’t require any off sticker to move
The issue is the Forester Hybrid is so good. It used to be that if you were looking at a Forester, for a few thousand more you could get into an Outback and many people did just that. Currently however, the Outback is significantly more expensive and the Forester comes in hybrid which many Subaru buyers have been asking for.
I have 2-3 customers a week asking if the new Outback comes in hybrid and then switching to the Forester when they find out it doesn’t
I’m honestly surprised anyone is interested in the new Outback. It isn’t a unique offering compared to the other midsize crossovers now that it isn’t a wagon, IMO.
It’s filling in more of its modern niche which is “I need a bigger Forester” and that generally where the sales come from. I think it’s still too wagon-y in its design and that’s why it doesn’t look right. If they had committed more to a full SUV shape, I think it would be selling better
Perhaps. I owned two 90s Outbacks and hate SUVs, so I’m biased. Haven’t liked the looks of them since 2010 except maybe the Touring with the lower rails that looked a little wagon-y still. Trailseeker looks good to me though.
Why is Lucid focusing so much time and $ they don’t have to burn on that stupid robotaxi project? The tech in that isn’t the cars themselves, it’s the radar, lidar, video processing, and AI. They’re barely able to make cars in the first place without setting billions on fire, and they’re wasting resources on robotaxis. It boggles the mind.
Drop that robotaxi project like it’s hot, and get that crossover on the market.
Note that I actually love the Air and want them to succeed, Saudi money notwithstanding.
I think Lucid should pivot to licensing their tech to other automakers at this point.
Regarding Subaru – it seems very clear to me that consumers actually respond well to good EVs. The Toyota/Subaru EVs are half baked; everyone can tell and the sales numbers are the proof.
Regarding Subaru, I live in rural New England, adjacent to a granola-hippie sort of town where I spend several hours a week. A few of my family members own newer ICE Subarus. I’ve seen plenty of recent electrified Toyotas, of course, some new uggo-Outbacks, a few Solterras, and I at least knew the Trailseeker’s the longer version with cladding, but I had to look up what the Getaway and Uncharted are. If I’ve seen either, I’ve just parsed them as Highlanders and CH-Rs, I guess.
The Getaway isn’t out yet but the EVs in general are thin on the lots
They’re selling most of the EVs before they hit the lots, at least down here. I happened to get lucky and see an Uncharted, Solterra, and Trailseeker at the dealer all at once, but they haven’t had one in longer than a minute since then, it seems.
We’re booked out past September at our dealership. If one comes in, it’s spoken for already
If only Toyota didn’t hate EVs and actually produced more…
I think Honda should have delayed the e, if they gave it better range and tweaked the interior it could have been a success
The biggest issue with the e was the price. It wasn’t particularly uncompetitive with EVs of the time re: range.
Having said that, I have always loved the look. Give me a Honda e Type R with 300 miles and I’m a customer. Keep it RWD.
I’m not a fan of the interior. It was unergonomic and had practically no buttons.
Thanks for the correction tho!
Is Lucid running a “The Producers” business model? Will something bad happen to them if they ever make money?
TBQ: Not sure it’s the most cursed, but Ithink the Pontiac Fiero can be considered cursed, with the fires in the early years and all. Then it gets cancelled one year after they revamped it and made it an actually good car.
I would have loved to see a Quad4 version actually being produced.
This was my immediate thought too! Agreed.