Lucid tries to keep pace with rivals with a $7,500 'EV credit'

Lucid's luxury Air electric vehicle exceeds the thresholds for federal tax credits, but the company is still offering what it's calling an EV credit." Until March 31st, those who buy certain configurations of Lucid Air Touring and Air Grand Touring models will be able to save up $7,500.

"We think our customers still deserve a $7,500 credit for choosing an EV," Zak Edson, the company's vice president of sales and service, said in a statement. "With this limited time offer, we hope to get Lucid Air into the hands of even more customers so they can experience the best for themselves."

Under the Inflation Reduction Act, the $7,500 federal tax credit applies to electric cars, sedans and wagons priced under $55,000. SUVs are eligible if the sticker price is under $80,000. All Lucid Air models exceed those limits, as the base Pure variant starts at $87,400. Even so, that model is not eligible for Lucid's so-called credit.

The Lucid Air Touring starts at $107,400 and the Grand Touring version starts at $138,000. While a $7,500 discount will always be welcome, it gives buyers savings of under seven percent. That's a far cry from Tesla being able to effectively drop the price of a five-seat Model Y Long Range by almost a third from $65,990 with the help of tax credits (Tesla slightly increased the price earlier this month). While Lucid is operating in a different market to rivals that sell more moderately-priced EVs, it seems like the company is doing what it can to keep up with the tax credits that they're eligible for.