In quite an unexpected turn of events, shares of electric vehicle maker Lucid (NASDAQ: LCID) saw a stark rise to the upside on Monday, December 9. At the closing bell of the prior trading day on Friday 6, Lucid stock was trading at $2.30 — at press time, the price had risen to $2.58, marking a 12.17% increase.
The carmaker has been beset by numerous challenges throughout the course of 2024. In mid-November, a 13-F filing revealed that BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) dumped more than 2 million LCID shares. Days later, technical analysis showed a death cross pattern on the Lucid stock chart— the first of its kind since 2022.
By late November, Wall Street equity analysts had largely adjusted their price targets downward — and LCID stock began trading at extremely oversold levels.
Picks for you
However, not all of the news was quite so grim — the company’s largest investor, the Saudi Public Investment Fund, put up an additional $1 billion investment in the business — and as a new wave of pressure hit electric vehicle makers due to President-elect Trump’s proposed EV credit cuts, Lucid stood out as a company mostly immune to those hypothetical cuts.
Despite this latest move to the upside, which has brought weekly gains up to 21.01%, Lucid stock is still down 37.90% on a year-to-date (TD) basis. The possibility remains that this could mark the beginning of a reversal — so, what caused this latest surge?
Lucid stock rose on new model production news
The long-awaited release of Lucid’s highly-anticipated Gravity SUV model appears to be on track — as the company took to social media site X to announce the completion of the first fully-built vehicle of that type.
In the past, despite some promising signs, the business had struggled both with production and delivery targets. Its thus-far lone model, the Air Sedan, has a limited total addressable market (TAM) — and Lucid is banking on its new luxury SUV as the ticket to broader appeal.
In addition, rumors have broken out that Donald Trump may have changed his mind on EV tax credits — no doubt thanks to Elon Musk’s counsel, if the news is legitimate. Although this does not directly impact Lucid — the cars it produces are too expensive to fall under the program, and most of their clientele are high earners who don’t qualify for these credits in the first place, the news is still positive for the wider EV market.
Lucid’s chief executive officer (CEO) Peter Rawlinson, himself a former Tesla chief vehicle engineer, also announced that the business will participate in a ‘fireside chat’ at the Nasdaq Investor Conference in London on December 11, which will include further updates.
It remains to be seen if the rally can be sustained — electric truck manufacturer Rivian also saw a notable surge owing to the tax credit rumors — just to be on the safe side, readers would do best to wait for the ‘fireside chat’ before making any decisions.
Featured image via Shutterstock
