Lucid Motors Steps Up Production as Supply Chain Problems Ease

The company plans in the next years to produce cars that could compete with Tesla’s more affordable Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, Mr. Rawlinson said on Wednesday.

Lucid, which has the backing of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, has $4.9 billion in cash, enough to survive at least through 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 loss in the fourth quarter of $473 million, down from a loss of $530 million in the previous quarter.

The company does not expect to make a profit in 2023 as it continues to ramp up production, Sherry House, Lucid’s chief financial officer, said in an interview.

Lucid said Wednesday that it aimed to produce 10,000 to 14,000 cars in 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 of the reservations, which are nonbinding, would translate into sales. “You can never count your chickens before they’re hatched,” he said.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/22/business/lucid-electric-cars-earnings.html