Better EV Stock: Tesla vs. Lucid

If you’re new to investing in EV stocks then you are probably wondering if you should buy Tesla or Lucid stock at some point.

Both companies are American electric vehicle makers that are helping consumers switch from legacy ICE vehicles to modern electric smart cars.

Tesla has a big headstart on Lucid because the company started delivering EV back in 2012 compared to Lucid’s first deliveries in 2021.

Tesla is on track to deliver 1.8 million EVs in 2023 while Lucid is projected to deliver between 8,000 to 10,000 EVs. It’s obvious that Tesla’s massive revenue and S&P inclusion are huge reasons why TSLA shares trade at a market that’s 77x larger than Lucid.

However, it’s possible that Tesla cannot sustain its historic growth into the future as the company struggles with declining operating margins and competition from new EV startups like Lucid.

That’s why LCID investors are excited about investing in a potential Tesla 2.0 EV company that’s known for producing the most luxurious and longest range EV on the planet.

Can’t decide between investing in Tesla stock or Lucid (LCID) Stock?

Tesla (TSLA) vs Lucid (LCID) Comparison

Here’s a side-by-side comparison to help you decide which is the best investment for your portfolio.

	Tesla	Lucid
Market Cap	$773 billion	$11.71 billion
Annual Revenue	$94 billion	$753 million
Operating Margin	9.06% (as of Q2 2023)	-402%
Net Income	$12.23 billion	-$2.55 billion
P/S Ratio	9.06	12.12
Cash on Balance Sheet	$20 billion	$5.25 billion

Market Share

Tesla has a 50% EV market share in the United States due to its massive size in comparison to Lucid Motors.

However, more competitors are producing EVs now and that number continues to fall.

Lucid produced just over 7,000 EVs in 2022 at its AMP-1 production facility in Arizona and launched its AMP -2 production factory in Saudi Arabia (the first of its kind) to sell EVs in the Middle East.

Lucid’s market share is currently less than 1% of the entire EV market so Tesla is dominating them in terms of market share.

Winner: Tesla

Business Model

Tesla is one of the most profitable companies in the world right now with annual net income exceeding big tech giants such as Amazon.

The company sells EVs, solar panels, and battery packs to its customers with industry-leading operating and profit margins.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk worked tirelessly to save the company from bankruptcy several times and helped Tesla become profitable in 2020.

Lucid is a much smaller company that focuses on selling 1 product right now, the Lucid Air electric car. The company has plans for an energy storage business in the future along with other EV products.

While Tesla is a major cash cow, Lucid is suffering massive losses and facing potential bankruptcies risk if the company cannot turn a profit.

Winner: Tesla

Product Offerings

Both companies produce a limited number of EVs plus have one or two new products in the pipeline.

Tesla	Lucid
Model 3 (Production	Lucid Air (Production)
Model Y (Production)	Lucid Gravity SUV (In Development)
Model S (Production)
Cybertruck (Production)
Tesla Semi (In Development)
Next Gen Platform (In Development)
Roadster (In Development)
Tesla Bot (In Development)

Tesla offers a lot more products at the moment than Lucid at the moment so it’s easy to see why TSLA shares are so expensive at the moment.

Both companies started off selling sedans and then transitioned to offering bigger vehicles that appeal better to American auto consumers.

Tesla’s Cybertruck launched in Q4 2023 and has over 2 million reservations at the moment with a starting price of $80,000.

In contrast, Lucid unveiled its luxury electric SUV called Gravity but hasn’t started producing any SUVs right now.

The Tesla Model S Plaid is the highest end EV offered by Tesla but doesn’t match up to the Lucid Air Sapphire.

	Tesla Model S Plaid	Lucid Air Sapphire
Price	$135,990	$249,900
Range	395 miles	410 miles
0 to 60	1.99 seconds	1.95 seconds
Top Speed	200 mph	205 mph
Peak Power	1,020 hp	1,200 hp

According to MotorTrend, the Lucid Air Sapphire is the most powerful EV on the planet so I’ll give the edge to Lucid.

Winner: Lucid

Production and Deliveries

Tesla delivered 1.3 million EVs in 2022 while Lucid delivered just over 3,000. It’s obvious that Tesla is way more productive than Lucid and should continue to be for the rest of the decade.

Here’s a breakdown of Tesla and Lucid Deliveries ever since both companies began producing electric vehicles.

Tesla Deliveries By Year

Year	Tesla Deliveries
2012	2,600
2013	22,400
2014	32,400
2015	50,000
2016	76,200
2017	103,100
2018	245,200
2019	367,500
2020	499,450
2021	936,172
2022	1,313,851
2023 (YTD)	~1.3 million

Tesla has done a good job of expanding production by opening EV factories in California (USA), Texas (USA), Berlin (Germany), and Shanghai (China). The company is planning to build another factory in Mexico but halted its plans during the Q3 2023 earnings call due to higher interest rates and a bit of uncertainty from Elon Musk.

Lucid Deliveries By Year

Year	Lucid Deliveries
2021	125
2022	4,369
2023	~8,000

Winner: Tesla

Management Team

Tesla CEO Elon Musk leads a brilliant team of engineers that have exceeded most investors wildest dreams. The company continues to excel and produce vehicles even though demand is 2x the current production capabilities.

Read some Elon Musk quotes to understand how passionate he is about transitioning the planet to sustainable energy. Tesla is the clear American leader in this push and Elon is still working towards that goal after 15 years as Tesla’s CEO.

Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson is a former employee of Tesla and helped design the Tesla model Y. He brings a wealth of experience to the Lucid engineering team and helped develop the world’s fastest and longest range EV, the Lucid Air.

Winner: Tesla

Fundamental Analysis

Tesla is a member of the S&P 500 and currently generates nearly $81 billion in annual revenue. The company is profitable and has a massive FCF of over $7.5 billion.

With a healthy balance sheet of $22 billion in cash, Tesla can do many things like invest in new products, buy back Tesla stock, or even pay a dividend in the future.

On the other hand, Lucid is still scaling production and has a negative cash burn rate. Lucid could face bankruptcy if it isn’t able to lower its cost of production and scale revenue soon.

Winner: Tesla

Options Trading

Tesla is usually the most heavily traded options stock in America on a daily basis due to its volatile price movement and loyal group of followers.

I remember back in 2019 when Trading TSLA options could make you thousands of dollars in 1 day just by 1 massive runup or rundown. Since then, Tesla stock has performed 2 stock splits and increased the number of outstanding shares by 15x so it’s nothing like it used to be.

Lucid options are closely correlated to Tesla although the price movement is usually much smaller. LCID stock is much cheaper so LCID options contracts are more affordable to investors with smaller trading accounts.

It’s easier to sell covered calls on LCID shares because it only costs around ~$450 to buy 100 shares of Lucid stock. However, you will need at least ~$24,000 to sell a covered call on Tesla shares.

I use Barchart’s Most Active Options and Options with Highest Volume to see what the market is buying and plan out my options trades using OptionStrat to estimate my profit for each trade.

Winner: Tesla

The Winner – Tesla (TSLA)

Tesla is one of the best EV stocks to own right now and it’s hard to bet against them considering TSLA’s strong financial position and huge production/delivery goals.

Lucid is a much smaller company with lots of room to grow in the future. The Lucid Air is a superior product but there could be capital issues moving forward. The good news is that Lucid is a small enough company that you could become a Lucidnaire if the company executes over the long term.

Tesla is the safest pick of the two with plenty of upside while Lucid has more risk yet higher potential gains for investors.

I own both of these stocks in my portfolio because these are the two best EV stocks to hold over the long term. Tesla is a good growth stock to hold over the next 20 years while Lucid is a millionaire maker stock that could 100x by 2030