Key Points
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Lucid and Bolt are teaming up in Europe to deploy 25,000 Lucid robotaxis over time.
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Already, Lucid teamed up with Uber Technologies and Nuro to begin deploying 20,000 robotaxis starting this year.
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The catch is that, for the Bolt partnership, Lucid has delayed the platform it intends to use.
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If we’re honest with ourselves, it hasn’t been a great few years for Lucid (NASDAQ: LCID) investors, especially given its cratering stock price. Beyond making excellent electric vehicles (EVs), the company has been plagued by a plethora of issues, including production problems, delays, layoffs to conserve cash, and a major talent drain, just to name a few.
You don’t have to go far to find bad news when it comes to Lucid, so this will be a breath of fresh air. In fact, Lucid and Bolt’s announcement last week is one of the strategies Lucid is doing well with — but there’s a catch.
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Bolt who?
Bolt is Europe’s largest shared-mobility platform, boasting over 200 million customers, 4.5 million drivers and couriers, and operations spanning 50 countries. Bolt’s next goal is to put 100,000 autonomous vehicles (AVs) on its platform by 2035, and Lucid looks to play a pivotal role in this development.
Lucid and Bolt announced a partnership to fill part of that 100,000 AV target with 25,000 Lucid self-driving EVs. “Shared autonomous mobility offers the perfect opportunity to extend our unique technology beyond consumer vehicles,” said Lucid CEO Silvio Napoli in the announcement.
As previously mentioned, this is one of the strategies that Lucid has done well with. Investors might recall that in July 2025, Lucid partnered with Uber Technologies and Nuro to deliver Lucid Gravity robotaxis, offering a premium option on Uber’s platform. The deal calls for the three companies to deploy 20,000 Lucid Gravity robotaxis equipped with Nuro Driver beginning this year, with entry into a second city in 2027.
Image source: Lucid.
For Uber, it was smart because the company would benefit from multiple players in the space and fragmentation. If a company such as Alphabet‘s Waymo or Tesla gains a dominating AV ride-hailing market share, they’re very likely to create their own ride-hailing business to cut Uber out and turn into a direct competitor. We’re already seeing evidence of this from Waymo.
This is a great move for Lucid, which needs to build Gravity at production scale however it can, and it boosts commitments to Lucid AVs to 45,000 units. Better yet, while Lucid’s first deal with Uber and Nuro is U.S.-based, this second AV partnership will be in Europe, a completely separate market and new companies to potentially learn from.
Here’s the catch
It all sounds great, and really, this is great news for Lucid, and it should continue to push with its advanced EVs. But there is a bit of a catch: Lucid just delayed the platform that the Bolt partnership intends to use.
Late this summer, Lucid decided to delay its midsize platform and the Cosmos, which was supposed to launch before the end of 2026, pushing it back to the second half of 2027. The move came as Lucid pressed the button on an operational reset, eventually hiring AlixPartners to help conserve cash and improve operations after laying off 18% of its workforce in June.
There is another catch: Nobody has truly solved self-driving vehicles at scale. So while these announcements sound great and, in theory, provide solid demand and potential production utilization for Lucid’s factory, the real orders and demand for Lucid’s vehicles will all but certainly be beyond the delay of its midsize platform anyway.
Investors can likely file this under hype rather than reality at the moment, but make no mistake: This is still a bit of good news and a strategy Lucid needs to pursue. It’s just that this won’t bear fruit for some time, and Lucid has a lot of internal issues to resolve and a turnaround to begin before this can materially improve the company’s value for investors.
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Daniel Miller has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet and Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
