A Lucid showroom in New York City on Aug 19th, 2023.
Adam Jeffery | CNBC
Luxury electric vehicle maker Lucid Group said Tuesday that it delivered 1,457 of its Air sedans to customers in the third quarter, a number that is unlikely to reassure investors worried about demand for the posh and pricy electric vehicle.
Shares of the company fell about 6% in early trading.
Analysts polled by FactSet had expected Lucid to deliver about 2,000 vehicles in the third quarter.
Lucid’s third-quarter deliveries compare with 1,404 deliveries in the second quarter and 1,398 in the third quarter of 2022.
The company said it produced 1,550 Airs in the period, with “over 700” additional vehicles in transit to a new facility in Saudi Arabia for final assembly. That compares to 2,173 Airs built in the second quarter and 2,282 a year earlier.
Saudi Arabia’s government, a major investor in Lucid, agreed last year to buy at least 50,000 Lucid EVs over the following 10 years, with an option to buy up to 50,000 more. Deliveries are expected to begin before the end of 2023.
Lucid’s shares have fallen nearly 23% from the beginning of 2023 through Monday’s close as concerns about ongoing demand for the Air have lingered. While the Air has received strong reviews, and can claim the longest range of any EV currently available in the U.S., it’s expensive: The Air starts at $77,400 in its least expensive Pure trim, a new single-motor version with 410 miles of range. At the high end, the 1,234-horsepower Sapphire version costs $249,000.
Lucid didn’t provide an update to its production guidance for the full year. The company previously told investors that it expects to produce “over 10,000” vehicles in 2023, guidance it first provided in May and reiterated in August. Through the end of September, Lucid produced 6,037 EVs in 2023, not including the units in transit to Saudi Arabia at quarter end.
Lucid had $6.25 billion in available liquidity as of the end of the second quarter, including $5.5 billion in cash and the remainder in available credit lines, which CFO Sherry House said at the time was sufficient to fund the company into 2025.
Lucid will report its third-quarter results after the U.S. markets close Nov. 7.