Lucid Motors plans to build just 9,000 electric vehicles in 2024, only 500 to 1,000 more than it made in 2023, as it struggles with demand for its luxury sedans. If it sticks to that number, that means Lucid will wind up building around 10% of the 90,000 EVs it predicted it could make and sell in 2024 when it went public three years ago.
The chasm between the new figures and those original expectations spotlights how much freedom companies like Lucid had in promoting the reverse mergers that helped so many become publicly listed. And it’s a sign of the brutal reality Lucid now faces: that it’s still scrambling to find buyers and losing money on every EV it builds.
Lucid announced the 2024 production targets on Wednesday alongside its financial results for last year, where it shared that it lost $2.8 billion in 2023. The modest projection comes a few days after the company slashed the prices of its Air sedan by $8,000.
CEO Peter Rawlinson has spent much of the last year talking about how important it is for his company to improve its sales and marketing efforts, while also pointing to the upcoming Gravity SUV as a potential boost. The Gravity is one of the reasons Lucid originally forecasted being able to make and ship 90,000 vehicles in a few short years. In fact, in the presentation Lucid used to promote its 2021 merger with a special purpose acquisition company, it predicted the Gravity would outsell the Air sedan in 2024.
The reality, though, was that Lucid ran into a number of supply chain and production problems in the early days of the Air and in 2022 had to push back the launch of the Gravity. The company finally revealed the SUV in November 2023, and says it plans to start building them by the end of this year. Lucid announced last week that it gave Rawlinson a $6 million cash bonus for unveiling the Gravity.
techcrunch.com
