Lucid Motors said Wednesday that it increased production of its luxury electric sedans by more than 50 percent in the fourth quarter as better supplies of parts and materials allowed the company to slightly exceed its full-year manufacturing target.
The automaker said it produced 7,200 vehicles in 2022, its first year of production in significant numbers, including 3,500 in the fourth quarter. In August, the company said it was aiming to make 6,000 to 7,000 cars for the year.
That goal, however, had been lowered from a previous goal of 20,000 vehicles. And Wednesday’s report disappointed Wall Street investors who had expected more. Lucid’s shares fell more than 7 percent in after-hours trading.
Although shortages of some parts and materials remain, “it’s much better than it was,” Peter Rawlinson, Lucid’s chief executive, said in an interview.
Car shipment remains a problem, Rawlinson said, which helps explain why deliveries of 4,400 vehicles last year fell short of production.
Along with Rivian, a maker of electric pickup trucks, Lucid is among the most prominent companies trying to take advantage of the shift to electric vehicles and challenge traditional automakers.
Lucid’s main selling points are efficiency and range. All variations of the sedan can travel at least 450 miles on a full charge, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. That’s more than any Tesla model.
Still, the odds are long. Tesla is the only new American automaker in more than a century to achieve mass production and survive as an independent company. Car manufacturing requires a large initial investment and profit margins are often slim.
Lucid’s least expensive model, the Air Touring, sells for $107,400 and competes for wealthy buyers with companies like Mercedes-Benz and Porsche that have introduced luxury electric cars. Lucid has announced plans to start selling an $87,000 model this year.
The company plans in the coming years to produce cars that can compete with Tesla’s more affordable Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, Rawlinson said Wednesday.
Lucid, which is backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, has $4.9 billion in cash, enough to survive through at least the first quarter of 2024, the company said in an earnings report On Wednesday.
Sales in the last three months of 2022 were $258 million, up from $195 million in the third quarter. Lucid reported a fourth-quarter loss of $473 million, down from a loss of $530 million in the prior quarter.
The company does not expect to turn a profit in 2023 as it continues to ramp up production, Sherry House, Lucid’s chief financial officer, said in an interview.
Lucid said on Wednesday that it aimed to produce 10,000 to 14,000 cars by 2023. Potential customers have reserved more than 28,000 vehicles as of this week, the company said, not counting up to 100,000 cars that Saudi Arabia has agreed to buy.
Mr Rawlinson cautioned that not all reservations, which are not binding, would result in sales. “You can never count your chickens before they hatch,” he said.
