Lucid Motors, a maker of electrical vehicles seen as a possible challenger to Tesla, mentioned Thursday that it had delivered only a few hundred vehicles in the course of the first three months of the 12 months however maintained that it was nonetheless on observe to promote at the very least 12,000 by the top of 2022.
The corporate, led by a former prime Tesla engineer, has been thought-about one of the vital promising start-ups making electrical automobiles. But it surely dissatisfied traders in February when it reported issues making sufficient vehicles at its Arizona manufacturing facility to fulfill demand, and minimize its manufacturing forecast. Lucid shares have misplaced two-thirds of their worth since peaking in November.
Lucid mentioned it was struggling to amass the parts wanted to meet reservations it has obtained for 30,000 automobiles. “Much like many corporations in our trade, we proceed to face global-supply-chain and logistics challenges, together with Covid-related manufacturing facility shutdowns in China,” Sherry Home, Lucid’s chief monetary officer, mentioned in an announcement Thursday.
In an interview, Ms. Home mentioned that demand for Lucid vehicles remained sturdy. An extra 5,000 reservations obtained since February would, in the event that they turn into agency orders, translate into $500 million in extra gross sales, she mentioned.
Lucid delivered 360 automobiles within the first quarter, up from 125 within the earlier quarter. In April, the corporate delivered 300 vehicles, an indication that manufacturing is accelerating shortly, Peter Rawlinson, who engineered the Tesla Mannequin S earlier than founding Lucid, mentioned in an interview Thursday. He and Ms. Home mentioned that provide chain issues are easing.
“We really see a light-weight on the finish of the tunnel now,” Mr. Rawlinson mentioned. The corporate has suffered from shortages of some commodities, he mentioned, however declined to specify which of them.
The corporate reported a lack of $81 million within the first quarter of 2022 on gross sales of $58 million. In the identical quarter a 12 months earlier, when the corporate’s income was negligible, Lucid reported a lack of $2.9 billion.
Lucid’s debut product, the $169,000 Lucid Air Dream Version sedan, was named car of the year by MotorTrend journal, which praised the automobile’s styling, workmanship and vary of almost 520 miles. Lucid and Tesla automobiles dominate the Environmental Protection Agency’s rankings of most-efficient electrical vehicles.
However like many new automotive corporations, Lucid has confronted difficulties in ramping up manufacturing. Lucid mentioned Thursday it could elevate costs for brand spanking new reservations starting in June. Probably the most reasonably priced automobile will value $87,400 earlier than authorities incentives, and the most costly will probably be $179,000. Tesla and different producers of electrical vehicles have additionally raised costs considerably, pushing the automobiles additional out of attain for middle-income patrons.
“We face extraordinary inflation pressures significantly for some uncooked supplies that have an effect on the value of battery cells,” Mr. Rawlinson mentioned. However he additionally mentioned he was “extremely optimistic concerning the future for E.V. adoption,” due to effectivity enhancements that may scale back prices.
With money reserves of $5.4 billion from traders, together with the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, Lucid mentioned, it has sufficient cash to maintain going properly into 2023.
