Lucid Motors plans to construct simply 9,000 electrical autos in 2024, solely 500 to 1,000 greater than it made in 2023, because it struggles with demand for its luxurious sedans. If it sticks to that quantity, which means Lucid will wind up constructing round 10% of the 90,000 EVs it predicted it may make and promote in 2024 when it went public three years in the past.
The chasm between the brand new figures and people unique expectations spotlights how a lot freedom corporations like Lucid had in selling the reverse mergers that helped so many become publicly listed. And it’s an indication of the brutal actuality Lucid now faces: that it’s nonetheless scrambling to seek out patrons and dropping cash on each EV it builds.
Lucid announced the 2024 manufacturing targets on Wednesday alongside its monetary outcomes for final 12 months, the place it shared that it misplaced $2.8 billion in 2023. The modest projection comes a couple of days after the corporate slashed the prices of its Air sedan by $8,000.
CEO Peter Rawlinson has spent a lot of the final 12 months speaking about how necessary it’s for his firm to enhance its gross sales and advertising and marketing efforts, whereas additionally pointing to the upcoming Gravity SUV as a possible increase. The Gravity is without doubt one of the causes Lucid initially forecasted having the ability to make and ship 90,000 autos in a couple of brief years. In truth, within the presentation Lucid used to advertise its 2021 merger with a particular function acquisition firm, it predicted the Gravity would outsell the Air sedan in 2024.
The truth, although, was that Lucid bumped into quite a few provide chain and manufacturing issues within the early days of the Air and in 2022 had to push back the launch of the Gravity. The corporate lastly revealed the SUV in November 2023, and says it plans to begin constructing them by the tip of this 12 months.
The Gravity means rather a lot for Lucid’s fast future — a lot in order that the corporate introduced last week that it gave Rawlinson a $6 million money bonus for unveiling the SUV. Lucid is engaged on a mid-size platform meant to compete with Tesla’s Mannequin Y, however that gained’t come till late 2026 on the earliest.
There are different issues that would give the corporate a lift. It solely only recently began promoting a rear-wheel drive model of its base mannequin Air Pure, which — with the latest worth cuts — now begins below $70,000. Rawlinson mentioned Lucid bumped into technical challenges with the early manufacturing of the Air Pure, however that it’s now absolutely ramped.
Lucid additionally final 12 months introduced it was selling some of its EV know-how to Aston Martin. Rawlinson mentioned on a name Wednesday that Lucid continues to speak to different corporations each in and outdoors of the automotive trade about placing comparable know-how licensing and provide agreements. He even mentioned Lucid is “seeing interest in our technology for use in hybrid electric vehicles.”
Saudi Arabia, which owns a majority of Lucid Motors by way of its Public Funding Fund, has additionally agreed to buy as many as 100,000 EVs from Lucid over the subsequent decade. The corporate began delivery Air sedans to the Kingdom late final 12 months, although Rawlinson mentioned Lucid initially bumped into “different market dynamics and intricacies unique to that market” that slowed the preliminary rollout. However he mentioned Lucid “expect[s] good growth in the region this year.”
This story has been up to date with particulars from Lucid Motors’ investor name.
