Lucid Motors remains unprofitable in the initial quarter, forecasting a substantial rise in investment expenses to reach $1.5 billion for the current fiscal year. The Saudi sovereign wealth fund PIF, already a backer of Lucid, has infused an added billion dollars into the company.
Lucid Motors reported a revenue of $172.7 million from January to March, with 1,967 electric vehicles delivered. Despite this activity, the company’s net loss for the quarter stood at $684.7 million, a slight improvement from the previous year’s $779.5 million loss. As per industry sources, the American electric car maker anticipates a higher investment spend in 2024 than in 2023, amounting to $1.5 billion, as opposed to the prior year’s $910.6 million. This escalation in expenditure is partly due to the planned commencement of production for the dual-model Gravity, followed by the introduction of a “budget-friendly mid-range car” at the close of 2026.
Thanks to the additional billion-dollar investment from the PIF, Lucid’s financial statements as of the end of March indicate cash reserves totaling $2.17 billion, a significant increase from $1.37 billion at the end of the previous quarter. CEO and CTO Peter Rawlinson attributes Lucid’s differentiation to its “superior, in-house technology and the partnership with the PIF,” expressing confidence in the company’s sales trajectory, cost management, and the future success of the Gravity model.
Lucid recently disclosed its latest production and delivery statistics. In the first quarter, the firm manufactured 1,728 electric cars and accomplished 1,967 deliveries. Although these figures represent an increase from the previous quarter, Lucid must still escalate its production to meet its projected annual output of 9,000 battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in 2024. For context, Lucid constructed 2,391 electric vehicles and achieved 1,734 customer deliveries in the final quarter of 2023, marking one of its most robust periods of the year. In total, Lucid produced 8,428 electric vehicles and delivered 6,001 units in 2023. The fact that more vehicles were delivered than produced in the first quarter of 2024 indicates that Lucid is effectively reducing its previously accumulated inventory, aided in part by recent price reductions for the Air model to stimulate sales.