Lucid Expands Robotaxi Ambitions to Europe With 25,000-Vehicle Bolt Partnership

Lucid Group has announced a partnership with European ride-hailing operator Bolt to deploy 25,000 autonomous vehicles across European cities, extending the EV maker’s robotaxi strategy beyond its existing North American agreement.

The European fleet will be built on Lucid’s forthcoming midsize platform, which the companies suggest is better suited to Europe’s typically narrower streets than the larger Gravity SUV that anchors the US program. The vehicles will run Level 4 autonomous technology built on Nvidia’s Hyperion platform, allowing them to operate without a human driver. Bolt says it will own the entire 25,000-car fleet outright.

Bolt, though less familiar to American riders, is one of the largest ride-hailing players globally, operating in more than 850 cities across 50 countries. The Lucid deal supports Bolt’s stated goal of offering access to 100,000 driverless vehicles on its platform by 2035.

Different Playbooks on Either Side of the Atlantic

The European arrangement differs from Lucid’s US deal in more than just vehicle size. In North America, Lucid is working with Uber and autonomy firm Nuro to roll out 35,000 robotaxis beginning this year, using both the Gravity SUV and, later, the midsize car. The Bolt program swaps Nuro’s hardware and software stack for Nvidia’s Hyperion system.

Europe’s driverless market is crowding quickly. Uber, Verne — the venture co-founded by Mate Rimac — and Pony.ai have already begun offering autonomous rides in Zagreb, Croatia, while Waymo is testing in Europe with plans to launch commercially in Germany before the end of 2027. Uber has separately partnered with Wayve on additional autonomous deployments. Tesla continues to advance its own Cybercab program, adding further competition to the segment.

The announcement comes as Lucid’s shares closed at $4.43, up 9.26% on the day, giving the company a market capitalization of roughly $1.66 billion — a small fraction of the valuations carried by rivals like Tesla ($1.45 trillion) and legacy automaker Ford ($53.6 billion). For a company of Lucid’s scale, securing volume commitments from two major mobility operators represents a meaningful demand pipeline for its next-generation platform.

Lucid has not yet detailed production timing for the midsize platform or specified which European cities will receive the first Bolt robotaxis.

What to watch

• Timing and specifications of Lucid’s midsize platform reveal, the basis for the Bolt fleet
• Launch cities and deployment schedule for the Bolt robotaxi program
• Progress of Lucid’s US rollout with Uber and Nuro, which begins this year
• Waymo’s planned commercial launch in Germany before the end of 2027
• Lucid’s upcoming earnings reports for updates on platform investment and partner timelines

Source: original release