Lucid shares drop as EV maker misses 2023 delivery expectations

Luxury electrical conveyance shaper Lucid Motors missed Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter and full-year 2022 revenue, arsenic good arsenic 2023 accumulation and transportation goals, causing nan company’s banal value to tumble almost 10% successful after-hours trading.

That’s a peculiarly unsmooth result for a institution that’s been battling proviso concatenation issues and has had to slash accumulation targets successful nan past. Lucid had conscionable been connected nan up aft producing 7,180 vehicles past year, exceeding its ain accumulation guidance of 6,000 to 7,000 vehicles. Of those vehicles, 4,369 were delivered successful 2022. When nan institution announced this occurrence past month, shares popped briefly.

On Wednesday, Lucid group 2023 yearly accumulation targets of 10,000 to 14,000, which is astir half of nan 20,000 to 22,000 deliveries analysts had expected for nan year.

Lucid’s gross besides fell short of expectations. In nan 4th quarter, nan institution reported gross of $257.7 million, which is rather awkward of expert expectations of $302.61 million, per Yahoo Finance data. Analysts had expected $661 cardinal for full-year revenue, but Lucid delivered $608.2 million.

Lucid ended nan twelvemonth pinch astir $4.9 cardinal successful full liquidity, which nan institution says will money operations into nan first 4th of 2024. That includes $1.7 cardinal successful rate and rate equivalents. However, nan company’s free rate travel is -$938,403.

Lucid burnt a batch of money successful 2022 — nan company’s nonaccomplishment from operations successful Q4 was $749.7 cardinal and successful 2022 was $2.6 billion.

Investors were astir apt besides concerned astir nan lowered request for nan Lucid Air sedan. Lucid said it has 28,000 preorders for nan Air, which is down from nan 34,000 it reported successful Q3. Similar to Tesla, nan institution precocious announced a $7,500 discount for definite Air sedans to boost income because nan $87,400 car — and that’s conscionable nan guidelines value — doesn’t suffice for nan $7,500 national EV taxation credit.

Lucid noted that nan 28,000 preservation number doesn’t see nan up to 100,000 vehicles complete nan adjacent 10 years nan authorities of Saudi Arabia has agreed to buy. The country’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) holds astir 62% liking successful Lucid.

There has been caller speculation that nan PIF would bargain retired nan remainder of Lucid and return it private. This is nan aforesaid money that had been successful talks pinch Tesla CEO Elon Musk to return Tesla backstage backmost successful 2018. Investors will expect Lucid to talk its plans pinch Saudi Arabia successful nan future, whether that beryllium purely financial aliases successful regards to Lucid’s plans to build a mill successful nan state pinch a planned yearly capacity of 155,000 EVs a year.

“As we look up to 2023, we’ll proceed to attraction connected beardown superior discipline, leaving nary chromatic unturned for each costs optimization,” said Sherry House, Lucid’s main financial officer, successful a statement. “We’re gearing for growth, while simultaneously taking a broad look astatine reducing costs.”