From TechCrunch · Sean O'Kane · · 1m 40s
Lucid and Bolt team up on European robotaxis
Lucid Motors partners with European mobility platform Bolt to deploy 25,000 autonomous vehicles across the continent by 2035.
In brief
Lucid Motors partners with European mobility platform Bolt to deploy 25,000 autonomous vehicles across the continent by 2035. Lucid is betting its robotaxi business will be far more profitable than selling cars to consumers, starting with a European partnership that could scale quickly. Originally reported by…
Lucid and Bolt strike robotaxi deal
Lucid Motors partnered with European mobility platform Bolt to deploy at least 25,000 fully autonomous vehicles built on Lucid's upcoming mid-size EV architecture across Europe.
“Lucid brings a world-class platform, and together, we will co-design the vehicle and software based on our data.”
New CEO restructures Lucid
CEO Silvio Napoli laid off nearly 20% of Lucid's workforce and delayed the mid-size vehicle launch to the second half of 2027, signaling a shift toward profitability over rapid expansion.
Robotaxi margins beat retail sales
CEO Napoli believes the robotaxi business will generate margins that vastly exceed those from selling vehicles directly to consumers, making it the company's path to profitability.
“the business of becoming a robotaxi provider would have margins that "vastly" exceed those of "the traditional retail model."”
Bolt will own and operate fleet
Bolt intends to own and operate the 25,000-vehicle fleet, with both companies collaborating on an autonomous driving system-ready vehicle platform from the product development stage.
Nvidia hardware powers the vehicles
The autonomous vehicles will use Nvidia's Hyperion autonomous vehicle compute and sensing architecture, though the companies have not disclosed who will provide the autonomous driving software.
No money or orders yet
No money has changed hands and Bolt has not placed an order for vehicles. The only timeline is Bolt's ambition to have 100,000 autonomous vehicles on its platform by 2035.
Lucid's Uber robotaxi still pending
Lucid has yet to deploy a commercial robotaxi and is working with Uber and autonomous vehicle firm Nuro to launch a robotaxi version of its Gravity SUV by the end of 2026.
Here's the gist
Lucid is betting its robotaxi business will be far more profitable than selling cars to consumers, starting with a European partnership that could scale quickly.
