Lucid Air Leasing Guide

Maximizing 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.

• Conquest / Loyalty Credit — $2,000. You can apply one or the other, not both.

  • Conquest ($2,000): A relatively easy incentive to qualify for in practice; confirm details with your SA. The eligibility list is broad (Acura, Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Genesis, Infiniti, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lexus, Lincoln, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, MINI, Porsche, Rivian, Tesla, Volvo, and several others). Saves approximately $56/mo.

  • Loyalty ($2,000): Requires current ownership or active lease of another Lucid vehicle. Saves approximately $56/mo versus no loyalty/conquest.

• Studio Select — $3,000. Not currently available. This incentive targets local and regional inventory at Lucid Studios and tends to appear mid-month or in response to inventory pushes rather than at month open. It's worth checking back with your SA later in May. If it returns, it would knock approximately $85/mo.

• Trade-in Credit — $2,000 or $5,000. Two tiers, detailed below. Ask to cash in the remaining trade-in value to secure the bonus while avoiding a large down payment.

  • Premium trade-in ($2,000): Applies to trade-ins of vehicles from the same broad premium brand list as Conquest. Saves approximately $56/mo.

  • EV trade-in ($5,000): Applies specifically to Tesla, Rivian, or Polestar trade-ins. Saves approximately $143/mo, a remarkable reduction.

Stacking incentives is the best way to optimize the value of your Lucid lease. Trade-in, Conquest/Loyalty, and Studio Select stack on top of each other. Trading in a Tesla or Rivian would qualify for Conquest ($2k) + EV trade-in ($5k) + Lucid Credit ($12.5k-$15k) = $19,500-$22,000 in total incentives. If Studio Select returns, that reaches $22,500-$25,000 and pushes a base Pure under $600/mo.

For the purposes of this guide, the presumed incentives include the Lucid Lease credit and Conquest, for a total of $14,500 (Pure, Touring) and $17,000 (Grand Touring).

Changes this month:

Lease terms shortened from 39 to 36 months.

Lucid has shortened the standard lease term from 39 to 36 months. With fewer payments over which to spread depreciation, monthly payments are higher than they would otherwise be under equivalent terms.

Removal of Studio Select.

Lucid pulled Studio Select from the advertised incentive stack, decreasing the available incentives by $3,000. However, this is an intermittently offered incentive and may return this month (often rebranded under another name, e.g. Earth Day, St. Patrick’s Day, and Level Up).

Essentially unchanged MF and RV%.

There were trivial changes to the money factor for the Air Pure and Touring. For example, the Touring sports a money factor of 0.0014, previously 0.0013. The Grand Touring again leases at a near-zero money factor at 0.00001 (APR 0.02%). Minor ~1% increases in the residual value were seen, likely reflecting a change in the lease duration. No significant RV% degradation is seen with increasing options.

Lowest monthly payment: Pure.

The Pure starts at $814/mo, a $131/mo increase from April's base Pure at $683 under our standardized assumptions (Conquest this month vs Conquest + Studio Select last month). The culprit is the shorter 36-month term and lack of Studio Select. If you are able to snag Studio Select this month, this would bring the monthly payment down to approximately $727/mo.

The Touring starts at $898/mo, a $84/mo premium over the Pure, offset partially by the improved residuals on the Touring (RV 48%) compared to the Pure (RV 43%).

The Grand Touring starts at a hefty $1,255/mo, a function entirely of its MSRP rather than leasing structure given its extremely competitive money factor. It is increased from $1,124/mo in April, a reflection of the shorter lease term duration and removal of Studio Select.

Best value: Grand Touring. (Runner-up: Touring)

With a money factor of 0.00001 (0.024% APR), the Grand Touring remains the best value at a respectable 1.09% MSRP/mo at base, a Good rating on our scale. No significant RV% degradation keeps the lease value relatively tight at 1.09%-1.16% MSRP/mo from base to fully loaded.

It is worth noting that the lease value of the Touring and Pure trims are not far behind, and all 3 are rated Good on our scale. The Touring, although sporting the highest money factor at 0.0014, leases at the second best value starting at 1.12% MSRP/mo. This is helped by its residual value - 48%, the highest of the three trims. The Pure is a close third at 1.15% MSRP/mo.

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. The lease value for the Touring ranges 1.12%-1.25% MSRP/mo, a 0.13% spread, higher than 0.09% for the Pure and 0.07% 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?

For the avid deal hunter, we would consider waiting for the return of Studio Select. It is frequently removed at the start of the month and reappears oftentimes around holidays, weekends, or mid/late month. Keeping a close watch on the Lucid website and newsletter, as well as other social platforms, are your best bets.

The main risks of waiting are 1) Studio Select may not come back at all this month and you miss out on current incentives/lease terms, and 2) dwindling inventory as the month progresses. If you are picky about finding an Air with specific options and less worried about maximizing your lease deal, consider foregoing Studio Select for your choice pick. If you are more worried about maximizing your lease deal, consider holding out for Studio Select to return, or perhaps waiting until June. If you are both picky and stingy - may the odds be in your favor.

Winners:

The Grand Touring.

From a pure lease value perspective, the Air Grand Touring is compelling. At essentially free financing due to its 0.00001 MF and with a $15,000 lease credit ($2,500 more than the Pure/Touring trims) + $2,000 Conquest credit, it is a respectable lease prospect starting at 1.09% MSRP/mo. This drops to 1.02% MSRP/mo if you can find Studio Select or an exceptional 0.90% MSRP/mo if you also trade-in your Tesla, Rivian, or Polestar. That said, this still puts the monthly bill at over $1,000. We suspect that the prospective lessors of an Air GT may not be in the same market as a Pure/Touring, which is why our second winner is…

A modestly optioned Touring.

The Touring is the sweet-spot pick. Relatively, it is only slightly higher priced than the Pure, slightly lower in lease value than the Grand Touring, and boasts the highest RV. Importantly, it has the widest spread of options available, which is a blessing and a curse. While it can be fitted with Pure-excluded options including Dream Drive Pro (Lucid’s ADAS that allows handsfree highway driving) and Nappa leather interior, its lease value “suffers” from a large incentive stack. Its lease value ranges from 1.12%-1.25% MSRP/mo, punishing heavily optioned leases. And again, it’s worth noting that finding Studio Select this month brings the payment down to $811/mo at 1.01% MSRP/mo, and trading in a Tesla, Rivian, or Polestar could further bring it down to an accessible $665/mo, at 0.83% MSRP/mo.