Valuetainment - June 27, 2026


＂They Built the Wrong Car＂ – Lucid Cuts 19% of Jobs After EV Sales Disappoint

Hosted by
Patrick Bet-David
Mentioned
Lucid Saudi Fisker Karma Mad Max Aaron Montt Tesla Cybertruck Gavin Newsom Humberto F-150 Trump Lusa Ford
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Episode Stats


Length

9 minutes

Words per minute

192.67

Word count

1,846

Sentence count

167


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Lucid is cutting 18% of its workforce, why the EV maker is struggling, and why the stock has fallen more than 50% in 2026, while rivals Rivian and Tesla have also fallen by 20% and 9% respectively.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 So Lucid is cutting 18% of their workforce.
00:00:05.760 Why the EV maker is struggling?
00:00:07.900 This is a Barron's story, Barron's story on this topic.
00:00:13.360 So high-end electric vehicle maker Lucid is slashing staff for the second time this year as part of its path towards profitability.
00:00:20.180 The company said Monday morning in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission,
00:00:24.780 The stock was down more than 4% on the news and has fallen more than 50% in 2026,
00:00:29.900 while rivals Rivian and Tesla have also fallen by 20% and 9% respectively.
00:00:35.000 Lusa's decline has been far steeper.
00:00:36.620 Lusa said it would cut 18% of its workforce, including employees and contractors,
00:00:41.320 for an estimated annual savings of $158 million a year,
00:00:44.360 while the company declined to provide the exact number of affected workers.
00:00:48.020 It reported 9,000 employees globally at the end of 2025, up from 6,800 at the end of 2024.
00:00:55.360 Humberto, your thoughts on the story?
00:00:57.180 Making cars is hard, especially in mass production.
00:01:02.180 You burn through money, like putting cars together like nothing ever before.
00:01:06.900 They had a lot of Saudi money in the start.
00:01:10.300 They became an IPO.
00:01:11.820 Everyone was very hot on this.
00:01:13.180 I think I can be fact-checked, but I think they were evaluated over Ford, Pat.
00:01:17.920 These guys were putting out 20,000 cars a year when the whole, like, EV bubble was going on.
00:01:24.460 And their target was 60,000 units, and I think they managed to hit 20,000 units, and they started burning through money.
00:01:32.340 They, in simple, I think they released the wrong car at the wrong time.
00:01:36.840 What Americans want is a $60,000-ish SUV where they can put the whole family,
00:01:41.940 and they're offering a super luxury S-class competitor that is $100,000.
00:01:47.700 So I don't know.
00:01:48.700 It was a very hot product, and I think bad decisions,
00:01:54.080 they have repercussions.
00:01:55.380 That's the story here.
00:01:56.400 They had a $1.35 billion revenue,
00:01:58.300 so it's not like this was a small little thing.
00:02:00.000 No, it was huge, man.
00:02:01.600 It was huge.
00:02:02.160 Can you pull up the cars to see what they look like?
00:02:04.560 I actually want to know what it looks like.
00:02:05.740 They're nice.
00:02:06.260 They're nice-looking cars, but they did have some mixed reviews.
00:02:10.000 You know what this reminds me of?
00:02:10.860 It reminds me of Fisker Karma.
00:02:12.220 Do you guys remember the Karma?
00:02:13.420 He owned the Fisker.
00:02:14.640 The first, the Karma.
00:02:16.340 The first, the beautiful car.
00:02:17.440 Yeah, the second one was very nice.
00:02:18.820 Fisker Karma, they sold the assets to General Motors at the garage sale.
00:02:22.740 And then Fisker.
00:02:23.800 Tom was an investor in Fisker.
00:02:25.120 Tom was one of the.
00:02:26.260 Fisker Coup Auto.
00:02:27.300 The second, yeah, the second round.
00:02:29.080 You know, they're both beautiful cars.
00:02:30.080 You can buy an original Fisker for like 25K right now.
00:02:32.640 But you don't have anywhere to get the parts.
00:02:34.440 There's no servicing and they use unique parts.
00:02:35.840 Yeah.
00:02:36.560 It was a beautiful, beautiful car when it first came out.
00:02:39.660 And that's a big deal, Pat, if you think about the economics of this.
00:02:43.360 Since they're so software heavy and the parts are very complicated and maintenance is very complicated,
00:02:48.520 it's not like a 1985 Ford F-150 that you can make parts in your garage.
00:02:55.740 Like, you need constant service from these EV companies to make the car run.
00:03:00.580 Batteries, they have a lot, you know, like, they don't last forever.
00:03:03.600 You need to replace them every certain amount of charges.
00:03:06.380 You know what I mean?
00:03:07.460 So Lucid is facing the modern era of EVs.
00:03:12.440 Subsidies are expiring, so you have to actually pay for the car based on some sort of cost, not on a government subsidy.
00:03:20.460 And thanks to President Trump, states that were forcing EV mandates are reeling those back.
00:03:26.640 And by the way, in one of, I think, example number 61 of where Gavin Newsom has never used a spreadsheet, when he mandates everybody uses EVs and forgets to look at what is the total power output possibility over a 10-year period of the California electric grid and find out that one doesn't equal the other.
00:03:48.100 And he says, I don't know what the problem is.
00:03:49.560 We do deficits all the time in government.
00:03:51.260 Yeah, well, you can't print electricity.
00:03:52.660 And so Lucid finds itself with an aging early entrant.
00:03:59.120 Lucid finds itself with consumers not getting the discounts, Pat.
00:04:04.040 And Lucid finds itself moving forward, so it's doing what everybody else did.
00:04:08.780 Hey, they went back to PIF, Saudi PIF.
00:04:13.240 You know what part of Lucid Saudi owns now with additionally the $550 million that they, in February of 2026?
00:04:21.660 57%.
00:04:22.720 57% of the company.
00:04:24.220 It's a Saudi electric car company that happens to be public on the U.S. Stock Exchange.
00:04:28.940 And they're going, wait for it, Pat, electric robo-taxis.
00:04:33.000 Because they could do volume and deploy them all around the world.
00:04:36.460 And they're going to delay the coming out of the midsize.
00:04:40.160 So guess what?
00:04:41.080 Market factors are causing them to pivot.
00:04:43.960 Will they be able to pivot to robo-taxis in their midsize?
00:04:47.140 Will Saudi Arabia be able to hold that 57% and see what goes on?
00:04:54.040 Tune in tomorrow for the next exciting episode of EVs in transition.
00:04:59.500 Look, this is a simple story.
00:05:01.140 Like you said, Tom, it's the business never showed up.
00:05:03.680 Everybody had pie in the sky predictions about where EV adoption was going to be, and it just never happened.
00:05:08.060 I mean, look at all the big car makers, the legacy car makers that made billions of dollars in investments in EV that this last year they've been writing off.
00:05:16.020 because the business just wasn't there.
00:05:18.120 I had a friend who sold cars who used to sell Hondas,
00:05:20.500 and he told me that every time gas prices would go up,
00:05:22.820 his business would be, everybody would be there.
00:05:24.860 Everybody wanted a Honda when gas was high.
00:05:27.460 Then as soon as gas came back down,
00:05:28.900 they all came in to sell their Hondas
00:05:29.900 because they wanted to go back to their big pickup trucks.
00:05:32.260 Like you said, people want,
00:05:33.540 they don't want what EVs have today.
00:05:35.100 So either Lucid is just too early
00:05:37.640 and that the adoption curve is further out into the future,
00:05:40.160 or there just is not a marketplace for EV
00:05:42.360 other than what the cheap Chinese cars are going to be.
00:05:45.460 In awkward news,
00:05:46.020 I just bought a Tesla.
00:05:47.040 I'm just going to throw that out there.
00:05:48.440 I bought it last week.
00:05:49.100 Beautiful car.
00:05:49.820 Thank you.
00:05:50.860 And the self-driving is incredible.
00:05:52.060 We may buy a Tesla Cybertruck and wrap the hell out of it and make it like a company car for people to drive around to go out there because it just looks good when it's wrapped.
00:05:59.620 Yeah, it's a very cool wrap.
00:06:00.640 But if you haven't experienced the full self-driving, it's nuts.
00:06:03.300 I did the other day with Aaron Montt.
00:06:05.680 We go in the car.
00:06:06.620 We're at this place, this arcade place.
00:06:09.280 And I said, Aaron, let's you and I just get away because this is a little bit too much for me.
00:06:13.840 I'm hungry.
00:06:14.140 So we leave, we go to our taco spot, and we had very good lunch together.
00:06:17.120 And he says, Pat, you've got to buy a Tesla.
00:06:18.980 I said, what do you mean?
00:06:19.540 He says, watch what it does.
00:06:20.640 First time in my life, he says, he just presses it, and it goes.
00:06:24.160 Now, for my speed, it would drive me insane how careful it drives.
00:06:28.120 But you know what it did?
00:06:28.780 Without touching anything, it got to the restaurant.
00:06:31.860 He did nothing.
00:06:33.200 I could not believe what it did.
00:06:35.640 You have Mad Max mode.
00:06:37.020 It'll go 90 on the highway.
00:06:39.000 There's Mad Max mode.
00:06:40.000 Not only that.
00:06:40.560 Maybe I would use the Mad Max mode.
00:06:42.100 I'm always on Mad Max.
00:06:43.240 I got you.
00:06:44.040 I got you.
00:06:44.420 And then it says, if you get a ticket, it's your fault.
00:06:46.840 By the way, they will get you arrested in Florida.
00:06:48.880 It will get me arrested?
00:06:49.620 No, 100.
00:06:50.100 Above 100 is a felon.
00:06:52.220 You're going to jail.
00:06:52.860 Yeah.
00:06:53.080 All right.
00:06:54.100 I mean, listen, nobody in the right mind would drive 185 miles in an SF90 on the freeway
00:07:00.540 here on 95.
00:07:01.280 Who would ever do such a thing?
00:07:02.680 You don't ever do things like that.
00:07:03.960 So be responsible, folks.
00:07:05.500 Right?
00:07:05.740 You got to be very responsible when you're driving around in places like this.
00:07:08.700 The blood of dead dinosaurs is good stuff.
00:07:11.000 Yeah.
00:07:11.100 Now, fathers, July 1st, 6 p.m., we're hosting a webinar on the specific topic of fatherhood.
00:07:18.180 It's funny.
00:07:18.840 One of the most popular basketball college coaches texted me yesterday, and he's so funny.
00:07:24.980 His expertise is raising great young men.
00:07:27.180 This is a man I admire in a big way, and he does some of the best interviews.
00:07:31.060 He texts me.
00:07:31.860 He says, hey, is that something I can get on as well?
00:07:33.840 I said, of course you can get on.
00:07:34.740 He says, I'd love to be on.
00:07:35.700 I'm like, do you want to say anything?
00:07:37.300 He says, no, I just want to be on and listen to the content
00:07:39.520 because I always want to find a way to become a better father.
00:07:41.520 So if you're somebody that also wants to find a way to become a better father,
00:07:45.220 I want you to watch this video.
00:07:46.280 Go for it.
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00:07:49.600 I'm hosting a free webinar to talk about six different types of fathers.
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00:07:55.300 it is very difficult to raise strong kids in a weak culture
00:07:58.140 if you, you may want your husband to get on.
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00:08:10.520 It's very confusing for kids.
00:08:12.280 Kids are more confused than ever before.
00:08:14.320 I want to share some of the strategies that's working for us.
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00:08:19.360 If you haven't yet registered, go register.
00:08:21.640 It's exactly a week from today where we will do this.
00:08:24.880 And at the end, I'm going to give you a resource guide.
00:08:27.680 One of them is 10 conversations you should have with each of your kids.
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00:08:34.900 but make sure you register, you and your family,
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00:08:57.200 If you enjoyed this video,
00:08:58.020 you want to watch more videos like this, click here.
00:08:59.780 And if you want to watch the entire podcast, click here.
00:09:04.900 We'll be right back.