Lucid Motors is elevating one other $1 billion from its largest monetary backer, Saudi Arabia, because it seems to be to blunt the excessive prices related to constructing and promoting its luxurious electrical sedan.
The corporate introduced in a Monday morning regulatory filing that Ayar Third Funding, an affiliate of Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund, has agreed to buy $1 billion price of Lucid’s inventory, which is able to add to the Kingdom’s present stake of round 60% possession.
The recent funding comes only a few weeks after Lucid informed buyers that it only plans to build around 9,000 of its Air electric vehicles this yr, a slight bump over final yr’s output. It misplaced $2.8 billion in 2023 and completed the yr with simply shy of $1.4 billion in money and equivalents.
The corporate has struggled to search out prepared patrons for its costly Air sedan, and has lower costs a number of occasions in current months in an effort to spice up gross sales. Lucid additionally plans to start out constructing its electrical Gravity SUV on the finish of this yr.
Lucid introduced the funding lower than three weeks after CEO Peter Rawlinson told the Financial Times that he was cautious of relying too closely on Saudi Arabia to maintain shoveling cash into its proverbial furnace. “If I adopt a mindset that there is bottomless wealth from PIF, that is very dangerous, that is something I will never do, I respect them far too much for that,” Rawlinson stated on the time.
