Bolt to launch 25,000 robotaxis in Europe with Lucid

Lucid is partnering with ride-hailing platform Bolt to launch a fleet of at least 25,000 robotaxis in Europe, in a deal the struggling electric-car maker called an “important step” towards stabilising its finances.

The companies said on Thursday they had signed an initial agreement over the rollout, which is lossmaking Lucid’s latest robotaxi deal since securing a $500mn investment from Uber.

The plan is by far the most ambitious so far to launch autonomous taxis at scale in Europe, where deployment lags the US and China and fully driverless robotaxis remain largely confined to testing.

The deal comes after Uber agreed to buy at least 35,000 of Lucid’s cars for its robotaxi network, likely costing it at least $2bn. The San Francisco-based ride hailer agreed to take a $300mn stake in the Saudi-owned car group in July last year before expanding the deal in April.

Robotaxis have become a key element of Lucid’s efforts to hunt out new revenue sources and return to profitability, as it loses hundreds of thousands of dollars per car sold to consumers.

Bolt and Lucid declined to provide financial terms of the transaction — which is currently only a memorandum of understanding — or when Bolt would start ordering Lucid’s vehicles.

But new chief executive Silvio Napoli said Lucid would aim to roll out the first batch of the autonomous cars, which will be built on its EV platform for affordable models, as early as 2028.

“The idea is as soon as possible,” he said. “It gives us confidence in the way forward [and] gives confidence to our board and to our investors. Financially, it is a very important step for us.”

Both companies said the deal was structured differently from the one Lucid signed with Uber, and that capital would be deployed “in stages”. Unlike Uber, Bolt will not take a stake in Lucid as part of the deal, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Lucid’s shares plummeted in mid-July following a report that AlixPartners was advising the company on whether it should file for bankruptcy or be taken private.

Lucid denied the report, but Napoli later said he had hired the consultancy to help with his turnaround plan after he took over as CEO in June. The company has since unveiled a $1.4bn cost-cutting programme and delayed the long-awaited launch of its affordable $50,000 model until next year.

Napoli said: “Our objective here is to be clearly profitable,” adding the deal with Bolt would also help with scaling up production at its new plant in Saudi Arabia.

The rollout, if finalised, would mean a dramatic jump in the number of robotaxis in Europe, where strict regulations and a lack of investment have hampered deployment, and most companies are still working on pilots with human drivers in place behind the wheel.

This month Zagreb became the first European city to offer fully autonomous rides to the general public, with a programme launched by Croatia’s Verne and China’s Pony.ai.

But Boston Consulting Group estimates that there will be roughly 120,000 robotaxis on European roads by 2035. The largest commitments so far include those from Uber and Pony.ai, which intend to deploy more than 2,000 vehicles across the continent.

For Bolt, the partnership with Lucid is part of the ride-hailer’s ambition to have 100,000 robotaxis on its platform by 2035, to better compete with bigger rivals including Uber and Alphabet-owned Waymo.

The Estonian group, which was founded in 2013, operates in 50 countries, but has been slower than rivals to embrace autonomous services. It signed a deal with Stellantis and Pony.ai in June for a pilot autonomous vehicle programme in Luxembourg, but has no vehicles on the road.

“Our data and unique track record running mobility services across Europe will help us get the rider experience, safety and costs right,” said Bolt’s founder Markus Villig.