The Lucid Group is the latest carmaker to raise its electric vehicle prices. Starting June 1, the business said accompanying its first-quarter results report that it will raise pricing on the variants of its premium Air car. The price changes increase the basic price of the Air sedan by up to 13%. The business stated that existing reservation holders will not be affected by price increases, and that new pricing for Canada will be made public on June 1. Given that Lucid just revealed that it had 30,000 bookings for the Air, it will be some time before the business gets a return on these higher rates.
The Air Grand Touring will cost $154,000, up $15,000; the Air Touring will cost $107,400, up $12,400; and the Air Pure will cost $87,400, up $10,000. The price of the Lucid Air Grand Touring Performance model, which was unveiled two weeks ago, will remain unchanged at $179,000, according to the firm. All of these prices are for base models, thus customers’ ultimate costs may be significantly higher. Other automakers, such as Tesla and Rivian, have announced similar price hikes for their electric vehicles, blaming continued supply chain challenges stemming from the epidemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as inflation, for growing supplier prices that are now being passed on to consumers.
In the instance of Rivian, the corporation had planned to boost prices for reservation holders as well, but swiftly changed its mind. “Like many others in our sector, we continue to encounter global supply chain and logistical problems, including manufacturing closures in China due to Covid.” Lucid’s CFO, Sherry House, stated in a statement that “we are working closely with our suppliers to minimise the effect of interruptions.” “While any prolonged delays may have an impact on our production prediction, we are reaffirming our 12,000-14,000 car production forecast for 2022 based on the information we have at this time along with our mitigation efforts,” says the company.
Lucid’s delivery schedule remains intact, with Air Grand Touring Performance deliveries scheduled in June, as well as Air Touring and Air Pure deliveries later this year. According to Lucid’s CEO and CTO Peter Rawlinson, manufacturing of the Project Gravity SUV would begin in the first half of 2024. Lucid’s projection for the fourth quarter was decreased from 20,000 units, which it had predicted in its third-quarter earnings.
The electric vehicle startup claimed it is seeing significant demand, with over 30,000 client reservations as of today, representing potential sales of $2.9 billion, according to the business. It’s unclear if it’ll be able to keep up with demand with the recent price hike, but those who can afford a lucid car in the first place will probably consider an extra $12,000 to be small change. Lucid also said that it just inked an agreement with the Saudi government to acquire up to 100,000 electric vehicles from the firm over the next ten years.
According to Lucid’s 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the firms agreed into a credit arrangement with the Saudi government in late February, which was publicized last month. Saudi Arabia has agreed to lend Lucid up to $1.4 billion on the condition that the government might restrict cash access in specific instances.
Financials for Lucid Motors in the first quarter of 2022, Lucid Motors reported $57.7 million in sales for the quarter, which the firm attributes to customer deliveries of 360 automobiles for the three months ended March 31. This is a significant increase over the $313,000 the firm earned in the same quarter previous year. According to Yahoo Finance calculations, it’s also higher than analysts’ projections of $53.43 million.
The corporation reported a net loss of $81.3 million in the first quarter, down from $748 million the previous year. Lucid expects to continue to incur significant losses and increasing expenses as it continues to equip and expand manufacturing facilities in Arizona and Saudi Arabia, develop and deploy charging partnerships, and generally grow as a company, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Lucid’s bank sheet shows approximately $5.4 billion in cash on hand, enough to sustain operations through 2023, according to the firm. Analysts expect supply chain challenges to ease in the second half of the year, allowing the business to ramp up production and likely keep to its longer-term growth strategy, which includes extending its manufacturing line-up and expanding foreign availability. Despite a slightly more optimistic forecast for future production, lucid shares are down almost 7% in after-hours trading, owing to the car pricing hikes.
Recent legal developments, Lucid has also been dealing with a number of lawsuits from investors alleging that the business made false and misleading representations about the Lucid Air’s projected start of production, as well as an SEC investigation into its SPAC merger with Churchill Capital Corp. IV and Atieva Inc. A new lawsuit against the corporation was launched on April 1 by shareholder Victor Mangino, based on identical charges pertaining to statements revising predictions and guidance made in late 2021 to early 2022, according to a Thursday filing. The investigation is still underway.
