Lucid faces tough Q1 earnings questions after sluggish sales

Lucid Motors is expected to face difficult questions about its future when the EV startup posts first-quarter earnings after the market close Monday.

The industry newcomer delivered just 1,406 vehicles in the January-March period, well shy of the pace needed to meet its full-year forecast of between 10,000 and 14,000 Air sedans from its Arizona factory.

Whereas Lucid suffered from supply bottlenecks last year for the Air, CEO Peter Rawlinson said in February that it now faces a demand shortfall. Its second vehicle, the Gravity crossover, is expected next year.

Lucid, which is majority owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, has seen production and delivery numbers fall from the fourth quarter of 2022.

Lucid reported 1,932 deliveries and a net loss of $473 million for the October-December period. Zacks Equity Research said on May 1 it expects Lucid to post a higher net loss for the first quarter of this year.

In the wind-up to Monday’s earnings call, investors submitted questions for consideration. Among them: What’s the plan for the demand shortage? When will more affordable models be made? And if there’s a recession, does Lucid have enough cash to survive it?

The most popular question, with more than 14,000 votes, took issue with Lucid’s projections back in 2021, prior to listing shares on the stock market. Lucid said at the time that it expected to achieve about 49,000 deliveries in 2023 across two models, the Air and Gravity. Lucid launched the Air in late 2021.

“Peter, you have said ‘I like to under-promise and like to over-deliver,'” the question began. “When will we see under-promising and over-delivering? It has been the complete opposite so far.”

Lucid’s stock price has lost about two-thirds of its value over the past 12 months. The company’s headquarters is located in Newark, Calif., a few miles from Tesla’s Fremont factory.