Lucid Air Leasing Guide

Current incentives

Lucid's incentive stack is diverse and covers multiple situations. Here’s how much they’re worth, how to qualify for each one, and some bonus tips:

• Lucid Credit — $12,500 (Pure, Touring) or $15,000 (Grand Touring). Applied automatically to all leases. No eligibility requirements.

• Loyalty Credit — $2,000. Requires current ownership or active lease of another Lucid vehicle. Saves approximately $56/mo.

• Studio Select — $3,000. This is decreased from $5,000 last month. This is an unadvertised, VIN-specific incentive that is available for select on-site inventory. The only way to know which vehicles are eligible is to inquire with your local Sales Associate. Additionally, it is a very fluid incentive - the discount value and eligible vehicles frequently change, as often as weekly. If your desired spec is not eligible, consider waiting 1-2 weeks to see if it becomes available. Conversely, if your desired spec is eligible, don’t squander the opportunity. Saves approximately $83/mo.

• Trade-in Credit — $3,000. This is decreased from $4,000 last month. Trading in any non-Lucid vehicle qualifies for the full incentive. Ask to cash out the remaining trade-in value to secure the bonus while avoiding a large down payment. Saves approximately $83/mo.

• Employee Referral Credit— $1,000. This incentive may be offered by default or can be requested from your Lucid Studio or Sales associates. Saves approximately $28/mo.

Stacking incentives is the best way to optimize the value of your Lucid lease. For example, Studio Select and the Employee Referral Credit can stack on top of each other for $4,000, on top of the Lucid Credit of $12,500 for a total of $16,500, which would put a base Air Touring at $861/mo before taxes and fees. Adding a trade-in ($3k) would bring it down to $778/mo.

For the purposes of this guide, the presumed incentives include the Lucid Lease credit, Studio Select, and the Employee Referral Credit for a total of $16,500 (Pure/Touring) or $19,000 (Grand Touring).

Changes this month:

Studio Select decreased from $5,000 to $3,000.

While June’s end-of-quarter specials saw an increase of Studio Select from $3,000 to an impressive $5,000 discount, July brings it back down to $3,000. Still, this is a considerable discount and the avid deal-hunter should start by asking their Sales Associate for a list of vehicles eligible for the Studio Select incentive.

Trade-in bonus decreased from $4,000 to $3,000.

Mid-May, Lucid revamped their trade-in bonus allowance from a tiered $2k (select premium brands) / $5k (Tesla, Rivian, Polestar) system to simply offering $5k towards any non-Lucid vehicle. Since then, it has been steadily pulling back - to $4,000 in June, and now $3,000 in July. The good news: it still applies to any non-Lucid brand vehicle. It’s worth noting that at $3,000, the bonus on a trade-in is most likely no larger than the premium you might get by doing a private sale of your vehicle - unless your vehicle is worth less than $3,000, in which case this credit is a steal.

No more Conquest.

Conquest was a ~$2,000 discount that required ownership of any non-Lucid vehicle and is not currently being offered. It will very likely make a return - perhaps later this month or later this quarter. For now, unless you can take advantage of the Loyalty credit instead, the loss of Conquest may considerably change the math for non-Lucid owners.

Air Pure money factor and residual value both worsen.

The Air Pure takes the biggest hit this month. The money factor increased from 0.00023 (APR 0.55%) to 0.00053 (APR 1.27%) and the residual value decreased from 42.4% to 40.8%. Accounting for just these changes in lease economics, the monthly rate of a base Air Pure increased from $831/mo to $891/mo assuming only the Lucid Credit incentive, a $60/mo increase.

Near-zero money factor on the Air Touring and Grand Touring are offset by decreases in residual value.

The money factor for the Air Touring dropped from 0.00094 (APR 2.26%) to 0.00001 (APR 0.02%). While this could have resulted in significant savings, it is essentially offset by a significantly decreased residual value from 47.1% to 41.7%. The net result is that the base Air Touring monthly lease rate actually increased month over month by roughly $23/mo assuming only the Lucid Credit incentive stack. The Grand Touring saw directionally similar changes, also with a month over month increase by roughly $27/mo assuming only the Lucid Credit incentive stack.

Best value: The Touring. (Runner-up: The Pure)

Last month, the Pure was the value winner from a % MSRP/mo perspective. This month, its worsening money factor and residual value let the Touring edge out. If you can secure Studio Select and the Employee Referral Credit, a base Air Touring will run you $861/mo, or 1.06% MSRP/mo, compared to a base Air Pure at $778/mo, or 1.07% MSRP/mo. Adding on a trade-in will push you into the sub-1% range, at 0.96% MSRP/mo for both ($693/mo for the Pure, $778/mo for the Touring). It is worth noting that these numbers are considerably worse from the rates available last month, which ranged in the 0.7-0.8% MSRP/mo range depending on the incentive stack.

Traps:

Over-optioning the Touring.

Lucid’s significant incentive stack creates a pattern where the % MSRP/mo on a lease increases as you increase the MSRP (i.e. add more options), assuming the same leasing structure. This disproportionally affects relatively lower MSRP models with relatively higher MSRP spreads between the base and fully loaded specs; the Air Touring is a prime example since it is close to the Pure’s MSRP but with far more available options, like the Grand Touring. The lease value for the Touring ranges 1.06%-1.20% MSRP/mo, a 0.14% spread, higher than 0.10% for the Pure and 0.06% for the GT. Comparatively, the spread is essentially flat for Rivian leases which offer marginal $3,000 in lease credit. It is a phenomenon worth keeping in mind if you are deciding how important adding an option is.

Foregoing Studio Select.

Studio Select is a significant $3,000 value that can knock off approximately $83/mo. It is an intermittently available incentive that is only applicable to select on-site vehicles. This list of eligible vehicles frequently change throughout the month - sometimes weekly. If your desired spec is not currently eligible for Studio Select, consider waiting a week or two to see if it becomes available. Conversely, if your desired vehicle is eligible, don’t squander the opportunity, especially if a weekend is approaching. At least place a refundable deposit to secure the incentive while you weigh your options.

Recommendations:

Waiting.

While last month saw impressive incentives and rates, this month is overall a pullback for the Air. The incentive stack is overall more limited and the changes in money factor and residual value are slightly (Touring and Grand Touring) to considerably (Pure) worse. It is not a compelling month to lease an Air - especially if you would not qualify for Loyalty, since Conquest is not currently offered. That said, if you do end up leasing this month, our pick would be…

A modestly optioned Touring.

The Air Touring remains a Joule favorite this month. It is a sweet-spot pick that is relatively minimally higher in MSRP and monthly payment compared to the Pure, but with the benefits of holding multiple Pure-excluded options such as leather interior and DreamDrive Pro, which affords handsfree highway driving. At the same time, a fully loaded Touring can considerably increase the sticker price and dilute the flat incentive stack, thus “hurting” its lease value from a % MSRP/mo perspective.

Those open to financing can explore the promotional APR loans available for the Lucid Airs this month, which include 0%/0.99%/1.99% APR on 60/72/84 month loans for the Touring and 0.99/1.99%/2.99% APR for the Pure/Grand Touring. Interestingly, the Pure’s APR financing rates increased by 1% across the board month over month. Head over to our lease vs loan calculator for a quick comparison of the total cost of ownership over 3 or 6 years, built with Joule’s lease tracker data.

Figures updated July 3.