{"id":38056,"date":"2026-06-10T12:43:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T12:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/38056\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T12:43:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T12:43:36","slug":"exclusive-lucid-delays-spain-and-austria-market-entries-to-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/38056\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: Lucid Delays Spain and Austria Market Entries to 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lucid<\/a>\u00a0has pushed its market entries in Spain and Austria to 2027,\u00a0EV\u00a0learned on Wednesday, removing two countries from an expansion plan the company had slated for 2026.<\/p>\n

Both markets were part of\u00a0Lucid<\/a>\u2018s plans to launch this year, according to the information obtained by\u00a0EV.<\/p>\n

Spain had been publicly named among the new European markets for 2026 on several occasions, while Austria had never been publicly confirmed \u2014 making its inclusion in the company\u2019s internal plans, and now its delay, previously unreported.<\/p>\n

The postponement extends a pattern of slipping European milestones at the company, whose\u00a0United Kingdom launch has been delayed three times and now stands at early 2028<\/a>, pushed back most recently in mid-May.<\/p>\n

A Shrinking 2026 Map<\/p>\n

Each postponement narrows what was announced as the largest expansion in\u00a0Lucid<\/a>\u2018s European history.<\/p>\n

Last September, at the Gravity\u2019s European debut in Germany, management told reporters including\u00a0EV\u00a0that the company would enter eight additional markets in 2026,<\/a> tripling its footprint on the continent to as many as 12 countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn total, next year our plans are to open in eight additional markets. So, we are rapidly expanding in Europe,\u201d then-interim CEO Marc Winterhoff said in a Q&A session attended by\u00a0EV.<\/p>\n

Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Spain and the UK were among the markets confirmed across subsequent announcements, with\u00a0France and the broader eight-market plan<\/a>\u00a0detailed by Winterhoff and European chief Lawrence Hamilton.<\/p>\n

At its Investor Day on March 12,\u00a0Lucid<\/a>\u00a0said it would add 25 new locations in Europe this year, a roughly 200% increase over its footprint at the time, alongside 10 in the Middle East and seven in North America.<\/p>\n

With the UK pushed out to 2028 and Spain and Austria now following to 2027, the 2026 wave centers on Belgium \u2014 where\u00a0Lucid opened its test-drive center on June 2<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 alongside Denmark, France and Italy among the publicly confirmed markets.<\/p>\n

Lucid<\/a>\u00a0had not publicly committed to a specific date for the Spanish launch beyond the 2026 window, and had made no announcement at all regarding Austria.<\/p>\n

Spain, a Long-Telegraphed Entry<\/p>\n

The Spanish market has featured in\u00a0Lucid<\/a>\u2018s public planning for more than a year.<\/p>\n

In mid-2025, Hamilton told Spanish outlet\u00a0Marca\u00a0that the company aimed to establish a presence in the five largest European markets \u2014 Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Spain \u2014 within 18 months, attributing its absence from the Southern European countries to what he described as \u201clagging\u201d EV adoption.<\/p>\n

Early signs of preparation appeared in November 2025, when registration data from the EU-EVs platform showed three Air sedans registered in Spain<\/a> \u2014 two Air Pure units and one Air Touring \u2014 followed by another Air Pure in early December.<\/p>\n

At the time,\u00a0EV\u00a0reported it was unclear whether the vehicles were part of the company\u2019s go-to-market preparations or individual imports, noting that brands typically register early units as showroom or internal-fleet vehicles before a launch.<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s EV market has accelerated since Hamilton\u2019s remarks, with battery-electric registrations growing strongly through 2025 and into 2026, making the delayed entry a postponed opportunity rather than a retreat from a stagnant market.<\/p>\n

A Timeline That Kept Moving<\/p>\n

Hamilton\u2019s public statements over the past year, taken in sequence, trace how the plan has steadily compressed.<\/p>\n

In June 2025, the executive told\u00a0Marca\u00a0that \u201cour priority over the next 18 months is to establish a presence in the five major European countries\u201d \u2014 a window that closed at the end of 2026 and that the Spanish delay now formally breaks.<\/p>\n

In September 2025, Hamilton told\u00a0Automobilwoche\u00a0the company wanted to be \u201crepresented in twelve to 15 cities\u201d in Germany as a first step, growing to 50 to 60 locations, adding that \u201ca dealership group could start at one location and expand if successful.\u201d <\/p>\n

At the IAA that month, Winterhoff told\u00a0Auto Express\u00a0the UK would get a midsize-platform model in late 2026.<\/p>\n

In January, Hamilton told Dutch outlet\u00a0Autovisie\u00a0that\u00a0Lucid<\/a>\u00a0was \u201cnow accelerating: expanding in existing markets and entering new ones in the near future,\u201d writing on LinkedIn: \u201cDo enough Europeans know our brand? No, which is why we are becoming more visible through expansion.\u201d\u00a0Lucid was openly seeking retail partners at the time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In February, announcing Belgium, he called the country \u201cone of Europe\u2019s most advanced EV markets\u201d and wrote that \u201cBelgium is just the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

In early April, Hamilton told\u00a0Autocar\u00a0the UK had slipped to 2027, explaining that \u201cto engineer Air and Gravity for right-hand drive is a big investment, and there has to be a return on that investment,\u201d and defending the slow start: \u201cThe strategy was always quite clear, which is to start relatively small and modestly.\u201d<\/p>\n

In mid-May,\u00a0EV\u00a0asked then-interim CEO Marc Winterhoff directly about the European expansion at the\u00a0Financial TimesFuture of the Car summit in London.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s still the plan,\u201d\u00a0Winterhoff said of the target of roughly 12 European markets<\/a>. \u201cI think the number is still around seven or eight this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the same day, Hamilton told\u00a0The Independent\u00a0the UK launch was moving again \u2014 \u201cIt\u2019s more likely to be the beginning of 2028 rather than 2027\u201d \u2014 while calling Britain a \u201cprime place\u201d for the brand and framing the sequencing bluntly: \u201cIn 2027, we\u2019re going to focus on the markets that we\u2019re already in,\u201d with expansion plans \u201cwell under way there, so we don\u2019t want to bite off more than we can chew.\u201d<\/p>\n

Less than a month after Winterhoff\u2019s \u201cstill the plan\u201d assurance, the Spain and Austria delays show the 2026 count shrinking again.<\/p>\n

Austria, the Unannounced Market<\/p>\n

Austria\u2019s presence in the 2026 plan had never been disclosed.<\/p>\n

The country did not appear in any of\u00a0Lucid<\/a>\u2018s public statements on its European expansion, suggesting Vienna was among the markets management had penciled in without naming when it referred to eight new entries.<\/p>\n

Competitors have moved faster.\u00a0Nio<\/a>\u00a0launched in Austria in November through distributor AutoWallis, opening orders and test drives for four models at a Vienna event, completing its first customer delivery in mid-December and registering five vehicles in January, its first full month in the market.<\/p>\n

The Austrian route chosen by\u00a0Nio<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 a multi-brand local distributor rather than company-owned retail \u2014 mirrors the importer model\u00a0Lucid<\/a>\u00a0has said it will use for parts of its own expansion.<\/p>\n

A Retail Model in Transition<\/p>\n

Both delayed entries come as\u00a0Lucid<\/a>\u00a0rebuilds its European distribution around partners instead of company-owned studios.<\/p>\n

EV\u00a0exclusively reported in February<\/a>\u00a0that the company had signed\u00a0Mercedes-Benz<\/a>\u00a0dealer group Wackenhut as its first European dealer agent, with sales beginning at Baden-Baden on March 30 and the first distributor-delivered Gravity handed over in Germany in May.<\/p>\n

Winterhoff said on the fourth-quarter earnings call that the company was \u201cin advanced discussions with more than 10\u201d additional dealer groups and importer candidates across Europe.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Wednesday,\u00a0EV\u00a0exclusively reported that Dutch dealer group Munsterhuis<\/a>, the\u00a0Ferrari<\/a>\u00a0dealer for the Twente region, is set to sign as\u00a0Lucid<\/a>\u2018s agent partner in the Netherlands \u2014 the second European retail partner identified after Wackenhut, with the contract about to be finalized.<\/p>\n

According to Hamilton, all new market entries \u2014 including Spain \u2014 will rely exclusively on local dealer partnerships, while the existing four markets keep their flagship studios under the hybrid model.<\/p>\n

Sales Too Small to Carry an Expansion<\/p>\n

The arithmetic behind the delays is visible in the registration data.<\/p>\n

Lucid<\/a>\u00a0registered 319 vehicles across Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Norway in 2025, a 32% decline from 470 units a year earlier, and just 54 vehicles in the first quarter of 2026.<\/p>\n

April brought\u00a029 registrations, nearly triple a weak year-ago month<\/a>, with Germany accounting for 21, and\u00a0May rose to 35 units, a 12.9% increase<\/a>, according to official data compiled by\u00a0EV.<\/p>\n

In Norway, the world\u2019s most electrified car market, the company has registered roughly 31 vehicles in the three years since its Oslo opening in March 2023, a portion of them attributed to a local importer rather than\u00a0Lucid<\/a>\u2018s own customers.<\/p>\n

The company is currently\u00a0running delivery bonuses on the Air and Gravity in Germany and the Netherlands<\/a>\u00a0for handovers completed by June 30, the end of the second quarter.<\/p>\n

Gravity customer deliveries in Europe also began later than planned, missing the January timeline Winterhoff set at the SUV\u2019s September debut, when he told reporters including\u00a0EV\u00a0that the first units would reach customers at the start of 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lucid\u00a0has pushed its market entries in Spain and Austria to 2027,\u00a0EV\u00a0learned on Wednesday, removing two countries from an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,9415],"class_list":["post-38056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-spain","tag-top"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}