Key Points
Lucid stock soared yesterday on news a European rideshare company may buy 100,000 Lucid EVs.
The question is: Does the buyer have the cash to fulfill its side of the deal?
Here's what we know about Estonian company Bolt.
Lucid Group (NASDAQ: LCID) stock leapt ahead nearly 6% yesterday after announcing plans to team up with Estonian rideshare company Bolt. Bolt plans to deploy 25,000 autonomous Lucid EVs throughout Europe and the Middle East (with no specific target date for completion), and then grow that number to 100,000 EVs by 2035.
Now that investors are starting to dig into the details of the plan, however, doubts are emerging -- and Lucid stock is giving back part of its gains, down 3.6% through 1:45 p.m. ET.
Missed AI’s "Act 1"? Act 2 Could Be 15x Bigger. Most investors think they missed the AI boat because they didn't buy Nvidia in 2005. But according to our analysts, we’re only at the end of "Act 1"—the R&D phase. "Act 2" is the global rollout. Continue »
Image source: The Motley Fool.
Something doesn't add up
If you're based in America, you've probably never heard of Bolt before, so let me tell you a little about it.
According to tradewithestonia.com, Bolt was founded in 2013 and reported its first-ever annual profit in fiscal 2025. Bolt grew its revenue 14% to about $3 billion last year, and earned just over $1 million on those sales. Operating cash flow for the year was $88.4 million.
That's the good news; now here's the bad.
A base model Lucid Air EV costs about $71,000. (Higher trims cost up to $249,000.) Adding autonomous driving technology would presumably drive up the cost even on the base model, although it's unclear exactly by how much -- but let's assume it's free!
To purchase 25,000 Lucid Air Pure EVs, Bolt must raise just under $1.78 billion. (That's equivalent to 20 years' worth of Bolt's operating cash flow currently.) Purchasing 100,000 Lucids would cost four times as much -- about $7.1 billion in cash, or 80 years' worth of cash flow.
Why investors are selling Lucid stock today
In a nutshell, this is why investors are selling Lucid stock today. Bolt is profitable, and it has some cash -- and that's great. The question is whether it will have enough cash to buy all the Lucid EVs it's promised to.
And that's a very big question indeed.
Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.