Al Root

Everyone had an easy time selling electric vehicles in the third quarter. Now investor attention turns to the fourth quarter. Selling EVs will become more challenging without the $7,500 federal purchase tax credit.

Lucid reported third-quarter deliveries of 4,078 vehicles on Monday evening, a quarterly record and a 47% year-over-year increase. The company's numbers follow Tesla's record third quarter. It delivered almost 500,000 vehicles globally.

Ford Motor and General Motors also posted strong EV sales. Ford sold almost 31,000 EVs to Americans in the third quarter, up 30% year over year, accounting for almost 6% of total car sales. GM sold almost 67,000, up 110% year over year, accounting for more than 9% of total car sales.

American buyers were rushing to beat the elimination of the tax credit, which expired at the end of September, removed in President Donald Trump's tax and spending bill passed on July 4.

Lucid's stock wasn't getting a bump from the sales record, though. Shares were down 1.1% at $23.76 in premarket trading, while S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were flat.

There are several reasons for that. For starters, Wall Street was looking for closer to 5,000 deliveries, according to FactSet. Another reason is the credit loss. No one knows exactly how U.S. EV sales will turn out in the fourth quarter, but they will be lower than third-quarter sales.

Lucid makes many cars that were expensive to qualify for the $7,500 tax credit, but any EV could qualify for the credit if it was leased. It was a loophole in the system for buyers of more expensive cars.

The company's reverse stock split, completed in early September, may also be an issue. Investors don't like them. Traditional splits can be taken as a signal that management expects gains in the future. Reverse splits can signal the opposite.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

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October 07, 2025 07:36 ET (11:36 GMT)

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