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Nikola Stock Is Sliding. Sales Disappointed and Deliveries Fell.
By Al Root
Updated Feb. 23, 2023
Electric and hydrogen truck technology company Nikola reported fourth-quarter sales that fell far short of what Wall Street had expected.
EV maker Nikola's dismal deliveries slam revenue, shares
Thu, February 23, 2023
U.S. Nikola's logo is pictured at an event held to present CNH's new full-electric and Hydrogen fuel-cell battery trucks in partnership with U.S. Nikola event in Turin
(Reuters) -Nikola Corp missed fourth-quarter revenue targets by a wide margin on Thursday as it delivered far fewer electric trucks than it produced, dragging the company's shares 7% lower in early trading.
The automaker produced 133 trucks and delivered just 20 vehicles to dealerships in the fourth quarter as companies dialed back spending to better cope with rising costs and a looming recession.
In a spot of optimism, however, Nikola outlined plans to boost deliveries and reduce costs in 2023.
It expects to deliver between 250 and 350 Tre battery electric trucks this year, compared with 131 deliveries in 2022, and forecast at least 125 fuel-cell electric truck deliveries in the fourth quarter.
The company also plans to start installation of an automated battery pack assembly line, which it expects will deliver about $105,000 in cost savings in battery modules and packs for each Tre BEV truck by the fourth quarter of the year.
Loss-making U.S. startups such as Nikola and Lordstown Motors Corp have been battling costs associated with ramping up production as they seek to grab a share in the commercial vehicles market.
In its third-quarter results, Nikola had said it would miss its goal of delivering at least 300 semi-trucks in 2022 and declined to issue fresh forecasts. Its stock has slumped about 66% over the past 12 months.
Revenue of $6.6 million for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 came in below analysts' estimates of $32.1 million, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Net loss widened to $222.1 million from $158.9 million a year earlier.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
By Al Root
Updated Feb. 23, 2023
Electric and hydrogen truck technology company Nikola reported fourth-quarter sales that fell far short of what Wall Street had expected.
Courtesy Nikola
Sales at Nikola NKLA –5.58% fell short of expectations by a mile, sending the stock lower despite data showing the electric and hydrogen truck technology company is still making progress in producing vehicles.
Thursday morning, Nikola (ticker: NKLA) reported an adjusted fourth-quarter loss of 37 cents a share on sales of $6.6 million. Wall Street was looking for a 43-cent loss on sales of about $32 million.
Not only were sales lower than expected, Nikola delivered only 20 of its first commercial product, the Tre battery-electric truck, to dealers in the fourth quarter. In the second quarter, when deliveries began, the figure was 48 vehicles. It was 63 in the third quarter.
Still, Nikola produced 133 Tre trucks in the quarter. That seemed at first to have satisfied investors, lifting the stock in premarket trading, but those gains evaporated. Shares finished down 5.6% at $2.20. The S&P 500SPX +0.53% and Nasdaq CompositeCOMP +0.72% gained about 0.5% and 0.7%, respectively.
Nikola “is mired in a difficult operating environment, presenting the company with a variety of challenges as it works to grow its business,” wrote Battle Road Research analyst Be Rose. He cited improving competition including the Tesla (TSLA) semitruck which recently began shipping. “Additionally, Nikola is in a bit of a bind, as it remains more than a year away from launching the Tre Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle, while its Tre BEV currently on the market lacks robust interest.”
Rose rates the shares at Sell, but doesn’t have a price target for the stock. Overall, about 38% of analysts covering Nikola stock rate shares Buy. The average Buy-rating ratio for stocks in the S&P 500 is about 58%.
For 2023, analysts are projecting a loss of about $1.25 a share on sales of $271 million. They also expect Nikola to use about $450 million in cash in 2023. Nikola finished the year with about $350 million on its balance sheet.
Coming into Thursday trading, Nikola stock was up about 8% year to date, but down about 66% over the past 12 months.
Sales at Nikola NKLA –5.58% fell short of expectations by a mile, sending the stock lower despite data showing the electric and hydrogen truck technology company is still making progress in producing vehicles.
Thursday morning, Nikola (ticker: NKLA) reported an adjusted fourth-quarter loss of 37 cents a share on sales of $6.6 million. Wall Street was looking for a 43-cent loss on sales of about $32 million.
Not only were sales lower than expected, Nikola delivered only 20 of its first commercial product, the Tre battery-electric truck, to dealers in the fourth quarter. In the second quarter, when deliveries began, the figure was 48 vehicles. It was 63 in the third quarter.
Still, Nikola produced 133 Tre trucks in the quarter. That seemed at first to have satisfied investors, lifting the stock in premarket trading, but those gains evaporated. Shares finished down 5.6% at $2.20. The S&P 500SPX +0.53% and Nasdaq CompositeCOMP +0.72% gained about 0.5% and 0.7%, respectively.
Nikola “is mired in a difficult operating environment, presenting the company with a variety of challenges as it works to grow its business,” wrote Battle Road Research analyst Be Rose. He cited improving competition including the Tesla (TSLA) semitruck which recently began shipping. “Additionally, Nikola is in a bit of a bind, as it remains more than a year away from launching the Tre Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle, while its Tre BEV currently on the market lacks robust interest.”
Rose rates the shares at Sell, but doesn’t have a price target for the stock. Overall, about 38% of analysts covering Nikola stock rate shares Buy. The average Buy-rating ratio for stocks in the S&P 500 is about 58%.
For 2023, analysts are projecting a loss of about $1.25 a share on sales of $271 million. They also expect Nikola to use about $450 million in cash in 2023. Nikola finished the year with about $350 million on its balance sheet.
Coming into Thursday trading, Nikola stock was up about 8% year to date, but down about 66% over the past 12 months.
Thu, February 23, 2023
U.S. Nikola's logo is pictured at an event held to present CNH's new full-electric and Hydrogen fuel-cell battery trucks in partnership with U.S. Nikola event in Turin
(Reuters) -Nikola Corp missed fourth-quarter revenue targets by a wide margin on Thursday as it delivered far fewer electric trucks than it produced, dragging the company's shares 7% lower in early trading.
The automaker produced 133 trucks and delivered just 20 vehicles to dealerships in the fourth quarter as companies dialed back spending to better cope with rising costs and a looming recession.
In a spot of optimism, however, Nikola outlined plans to boost deliveries and reduce costs in 2023.
It expects to deliver between 250 and 350 Tre battery electric trucks this year, compared with 131 deliveries in 2022, and forecast at least 125 fuel-cell electric truck deliveries in the fourth quarter.
The company also plans to start installation of an automated battery pack assembly line, which it expects will deliver about $105,000 in cost savings in battery modules and packs for each Tre BEV truck by the fourth quarter of the year.
Loss-making U.S. startups such as Nikola and Lordstown Motors Corp have been battling costs associated with ramping up production as they seek to grab a share in the commercial vehicles market.
In its third-quarter results, Nikola had said it would miss its goal of delivering at least 300 semi-trucks in 2022 and declined to issue fresh forecasts. Its stock has slumped about 66% over the past 12 months.
Revenue of $6.6 million for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 came in below analysts' estimates of $32.1 million, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Net loss widened to $222.1 million from $158.9 million a year earlier.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
Electric-truck maker Lordstown pauses production, deliveries
Thu, February 23, 2023
(Reuters) -Lordstown Motors Corp will temporarily stop production and deliveries of its pickup truck Endurance, of which it has only made 31 units for sale, the electric-vehicle maker said, citing performance and quality issues with some components.
Shares tumbled 11.8% to $1.08 in early trading on Thursday after the company also said it would voluntarily recall 19 vehicles delivered to customers or being used internally.
Lordstown had set a target to deliver 50 vehicles in 2022 and more in 2023 out of the planned first batch of 500 units when commercial production started in September.
The company did not make it clear when it would resume production and deliveries.
Investor Foxconn, which also manufactures the Endurance trucks, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Vehicles waiting for shipment and in process at the manufacturing plant will also be fixed, the company added.
The EV company said in January it expected production to be slow through its first quarter due to supply chain constraints, particularly with respect to the availability of hub motor components.
(Reporting by Chavi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
Thu, February 23, 2023
(Reuters) -Lordstown Motors Corp will temporarily stop production and deliveries of its pickup truck Endurance, of which it has only made 31 units for sale, the electric-vehicle maker said, citing performance and quality issues with some components.
Shares tumbled 11.8% to $1.08 in early trading on Thursday after the company also said it would voluntarily recall 19 vehicles delivered to customers or being used internally.
Lordstown had set a target to deliver 50 vehicles in 2022 and more in 2023 out of the planned first batch of 500 units when commercial production started in September.
The company did not make it clear when it would resume production and deliveries.
Investor Foxconn, which also manufactures the Endurance trucks, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Vehicles waiting for shipment and in process at the manufacturing plant will also be fixed, the company added.
The EV company said in January it expected production to be slow through its first quarter due to supply chain constraints, particularly with respect to the availability of hub motor components.
(Reporting by Chavi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
Lucid sees disappointing 2023 EV production as orders drop amid weakening demand
Akash Sriram and Abhirup Roy
Wed, February 22, 2023
A Lucid Air electric vehicle is displayed in Scottsdale, Arizona
(Reuters) - Lucid Group Inc on Wednesday forecast 2023 production well short of analysts' expectations and reported a major drop in orders during the fourth quarter amid weakening demand, sending the electric carmaker's shares down 11% after hours.
The Newark, California-based company, which was already battling supply chain and logistics issues and struggling to deliver cars, was hit by aggressive price cuts sparked by Tesla Inc that lured consumers away from its luxury cars amid rising interest rates and soaring inflation.
"There's a lot more competition than a year ago ... a lot more EVs becoming available at lower price points than the Lucid Air vehicle," said Garrett Nelson, an analyst at CFRA Research. "There's probably a lot of frustration from customers having to wait for so long to get the vehicles they ordered."
Lucid said it expects to produce 10,000 to 14,000 luxury electric vehicles this year. Analysts on average expected the company to make 21,815 cars, according to Visible Alpha.
The company, backed by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, Public Investment Fund, delivered 4,369 cars last year, far below the 7,180 units it produced.
"We've gotten past the major bottlenecks limiting manufacturing, but this had some impact on the demand we generated early on, and this has been exacerbated by the challenging macroeconomic environment," Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson said on a call with analysts, after the company reported fourth-quarter revenue that missed expectations.
Price cuts by Tesla and Ford Motor Co have made it harder for rivals such as Rivian Automotive Inc and Lucid to grab share in an industry competing for shrinking consumer wallets.
Lucid said it had more than 28,000 orders as of Feb. 21, down 6,000 reservations from the third quarter, after it delivered about 1,900 vehicles and saw cancellations. That was despite Lucid's offering a discount of $7,500 on Feb. 9 for purchases of certain variants of the Air sedan before March 31.
Finance chief Sherry House said Lucid would not publish quarterly reservation numbers going ahead.
This year, the company will focus on improving production and deliveries, and will take a "vigorous and comprehensive" look at driving down operating and manufacturing costs.
House said Lucid would incur capital expenditures of between $1.5 billion and $1.75 billion in 2023. That's a 40% jump from 2022, but well below analysts' expectations of $2.24 billion.
Lucid reported a cash balance of $1.74 billion in the fourth quarter, after raising $1.52 billion in December. At the end of the third quarter, it had $1.26 billion in cash reserves.
Revenue rose to $257.7 million in the quarter ended Dec. 31 from $26.4 million a year earlier. Analysts on average had expected sales of $302.6 million, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
The company's net loss narrowed to $472.6 million, or 28 cents per share, from a loss of $1.05 billion, or 64 cents per share, a year earlier.
Shares of Lucid fell as much 10.6% in extended trading. The stock fell 82% last year after Lucid halved its production forecast due to supply chain issues.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Abhirup Roy in San Francisco; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli, David Gregorio, Lincoln Feast and Leslie Adler)
Lucid shares drop as EV maker misses 2023 delivery expectations
Rebecca Bellan
Wed, February 22, 2023
Luxury electric vehicle maker Lucid Motors missed Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter and full-year 2022 revenue, as well as 2023 production and delivery goals, causing the company's stock price to tumble almost 10% in after-hours trading.
That's a particularly rough outcome for a company that's been battling supply chain issues and has had to slash production targets in the past. Lucid had just been on the up after producing 7,180 vehicles last year, exceeding its own production guidance of 6,000 to 7,000 vehicles. Of those vehicles, 4,369 were delivered in 2022. When the company announced this success last month, shares popped briefly.
On Wednesday, Lucid set 2023 annual production targets of 10,000 to 14,000, which is roughly half of the 20,000 to 22,000 deliveries analysts had expected for the year.
Lucid's revenue also fell short of expectations. In the fourth quarter, the company reported revenue of $257.7 million, which is quite shy of analyst expectations of $302.61 million, per Yahoo Finance data. Analysts had expected $661 million for full-year revenue, but Lucid delivered $608.2 million.
Lucid ended the year with about $4.9 billion in total liquidity, which the company says will fund operations into the first quarter of 2024. That includes $1.7 billion in cash and cash equivalents. However, the company's free cash flow is -$938,403.
Lucid burnt a lot of money in 2022 -- the company's loss from operations in Q4 was $749.7 million and in 2022 was $2.6 billion.
Investors were probably also concerned about the lowered demand for the Lucid Air sedan. Lucid said it has 28,000 preorders for the Air, which is down from the 34,000 it reported in Q3. Similar to Tesla, the company recently announced a $7,500 discount for certain Air sedans to boost sales because the $87,400 car -- and that's just the base price -- doesn't qualify for the $7,500 federal EV tax credit.
Lucid noted that the 28,000 reservation number doesn't include the up to 100,000 vehicles over the next 10 years the government of Saudi Arabia has agreed to buy. The country's Public Investment Fund (PIF) holds about 62% stake in Lucid.
There has been recent speculation that the PIF would buy out the remainder of Lucid and take it private, but Lucid wouldn't confirm or deny the rumors during Wednesday's earnings call. By the way, this is the same fund that had been in talks with Tesla CEO Elon Musk to take Tesla private back in 2018. Lucid also plans to build a factory in the country with a planned annual capacity of 155,000 EVs a year.
"As we look ahead to 2023, we'll continue to focus on strong capital discipline, leaving no stone unturned for every cost optimization," said Sherry House, Lucid's chief financial officer, in a statement. "We're gearing for growth, while simultaneously taking a comprehensive look at reducing costs."
This article has been updated with information revealed during Lucid's earnings call.
Lucid earnings: Stock slides as EV-maker misses on revenue
Pras Subramanian
·Senior Reporter
Wed, February 22, 2023
Lucid stock is sliding following the EV-maker's huge revenue miss for the quarter on deliveries that fell well short of expectations.
Lucid reported Q4 deliveries of 1,932 vehicles, missing estimates for 2,813. The company's adjusted loss per share, however, was narrower than forecast. In after hours trade on Wednesday, the stock was down as much as 9.5%.
For the quarter, Lucid reported:
Q4 Revenue: $257.7M vs $314.9M (est.)
Q4 Adjusted EPS: ($0.28) vs ($0.40) loss (est.)
Though revenue grew quarter over quarter, it was still a significant miss for the company.
Last month Lucid announced it produced 3,493 vehicles for the quarter and 7,180 for the year, topping its forecast of 6,000-7,000 vehicles for the year, however that forecast had been slashed multiple times last year. Lucid’s original forecast for 2022 had them building 20,000 vehicles for the year.
Akash Sriram and Abhirup Roy
Wed, February 22, 2023
A Lucid Air electric vehicle is displayed in Scottsdale, Arizona
(Reuters) - Lucid Group Inc on Wednesday forecast 2023 production well short of analysts' expectations and reported a major drop in orders during the fourth quarter amid weakening demand, sending the electric carmaker's shares down 11% after hours.
The Newark, California-based company, which was already battling supply chain and logistics issues and struggling to deliver cars, was hit by aggressive price cuts sparked by Tesla Inc that lured consumers away from its luxury cars amid rising interest rates and soaring inflation.
"There's a lot more competition than a year ago ... a lot more EVs becoming available at lower price points than the Lucid Air vehicle," said Garrett Nelson, an analyst at CFRA Research. "There's probably a lot of frustration from customers having to wait for so long to get the vehicles they ordered."
Lucid said it expects to produce 10,000 to 14,000 luxury electric vehicles this year. Analysts on average expected the company to make 21,815 cars, according to Visible Alpha.
The company, backed by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, Public Investment Fund, delivered 4,369 cars last year, far below the 7,180 units it produced.
"We've gotten past the major bottlenecks limiting manufacturing, but this had some impact on the demand we generated early on, and this has been exacerbated by the challenging macroeconomic environment," Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson said on a call with analysts, after the company reported fourth-quarter revenue that missed expectations.
Price cuts by Tesla and Ford Motor Co have made it harder for rivals such as Rivian Automotive Inc and Lucid to grab share in an industry competing for shrinking consumer wallets.
Lucid said it had more than 28,000 orders as of Feb. 21, down 6,000 reservations from the third quarter, after it delivered about 1,900 vehicles and saw cancellations. That was despite Lucid's offering a discount of $7,500 on Feb. 9 for purchases of certain variants of the Air sedan before March 31.
Finance chief Sherry House said Lucid would not publish quarterly reservation numbers going ahead.
This year, the company will focus on improving production and deliveries, and will take a "vigorous and comprehensive" look at driving down operating and manufacturing costs.
House said Lucid would incur capital expenditures of between $1.5 billion and $1.75 billion in 2023. That's a 40% jump from 2022, but well below analysts' expectations of $2.24 billion.
Lucid reported a cash balance of $1.74 billion in the fourth quarter, after raising $1.52 billion in December. At the end of the third quarter, it had $1.26 billion in cash reserves.
Revenue rose to $257.7 million in the quarter ended Dec. 31 from $26.4 million a year earlier. Analysts on average had expected sales of $302.6 million, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
The company's net loss narrowed to $472.6 million, or 28 cents per share, from a loss of $1.05 billion, or 64 cents per share, a year earlier.
Shares of Lucid fell as much 10.6% in extended trading. The stock fell 82% last year after Lucid halved its production forecast due to supply chain issues.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Abhirup Roy in San Francisco; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli, David Gregorio, Lincoln Feast and Leslie Adler)
Lucid shares drop as EV maker misses 2023 delivery expectations
Rebecca Bellan
Wed, February 22, 2023
Luxury electric vehicle maker Lucid Motors missed Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter and full-year 2022 revenue, as well as 2023 production and delivery goals, causing the company's stock price to tumble almost 10% in after-hours trading.
That's a particularly rough outcome for a company that's been battling supply chain issues and has had to slash production targets in the past. Lucid had just been on the up after producing 7,180 vehicles last year, exceeding its own production guidance of 6,000 to 7,000 vehicles. Of those vehicles, 4,369 were delivered in 2022. When the company announced this success last month, shares popped briefly.
On Wednesday, Lucid set 2023 annual production targets of 10,000 to 14,000, which is roughly half of the 20,000 to 22,000 deliveries analysts had expected for the year.
Lucid's revenue also fell short of expectations. In the fourth quarter, the company reported revenue of $257.7 million, which is quite shy of analyst expectations of $302.61 million, per Yahoo Finance data. Analysts had expected $661 million for full-year revenue, but Lucid delivered $608.2 million.
Lucid ended the year with about $4.9 billion in total liquidity, which the company says will fund operations into the first quarter of 2024. That includes $1.7 billion in cash and cash equivalents. However, the company's free cash flow is -$938,403.
Lucid burnt a lot of money in 2022 -- the company's loss from operations in Q4 was $749.7 million and in 2022 was $2.6 billion.
Investors were probably also concerned about the lowered demand for the Lucid Air sedan. Lucid said it has 28,000 preorders for the Air, which is down from the 34,000 it reported in Q3. Similar to Tesla, the company recently announced a $7,500 discount for certain Air sedans to boost sales because the $87,400 car -- and that's just the base price -- doesn't qualify for the $7,500 federal EV tax credit.
Lucid noted that the 28,000 reservation number doesn't include the up to 100,000 vehicles over the next 10 years the government of Saudi Arabia has agreed to buy. The country's Public Investment Fund (PIF) holds about 62% stake in Lucid.
There has been recent speculation that the PIF would buy out the remainder of Lucid and take it private, but Lucid wouldn't confirm or deny the rumors during Wednesday's earnings call. By the way, this is the same fund that had been in talks with Tesla CEO Elon Musk to take Tesla private back in 2018. Lucid also plans to build a factory in the country with a planned annual capacity of 155,000 EVs a year.
"As we look ahead to 2023, we'll continue to focus on strong capital discipline, leaving no stone unturned for every cost optimization," said Sherry House, Lucid's chief financial officer, in a statement. "We're gearing for growth, while simultaneously taking a comprehensive look at reducing costs."
This article has been updated with information revealed during Lucid's earnings call.
Lucid earnings: Stock slides as EV-maker misses on revenue
Pras Subramanian
·Senior Reporter
Wed, February 22, 2023
Lucid stock is sliding following the EV-maker's huge revenue miss for the quarter on deliveries that fell well short of expectations.
Lucid reported Q4 deliveries of 1,932 vehicles, missing estimates for 2,813. The company's adjusted loss per share, however, was narrower than forecast. In after hours trade on Wednesday, the stock was down as much as 9.5%.
For the quarter, Lucid reported:
Q4 Revenue: $257.7M vs $314.9M (est.)
Q4 Adjusted EPS: ($0.28) vs ($0.40) loss (est.)
Though revenue grew quarter over quarter, it was still a significant miss for the company.
Last month Lucid announced it produced 3,493 vehicles for the quarter and 7,180 for the year, topping its forecast of 6,000-7,000 vehicles for the year, however that forecast had been slashed multiple times last year. Lucid’s original forecast for 2022 had them building 20,000 vehicles for the year.
Lucid Group, Inc. (LCID) View quote details
Lucid sees Q1 revenue of $600-$640 million, in-line with the ~$620 million estimated by analysts. Lucid also forecasts its 2023 production to be 10,000 to 14,000 vehicles.
"Last year was a challenging year for everyone, yet despite the extraordinary supply chain and logistics challenges, the team persevered with an unrelenting focus on delivering what we believe is the best luxury sedan on the market," said Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson in a statement.
"Lucid Air is the quintessential luxury sedan, and our goal in 2023 is to amplify our sales and marketing efforts to get this amazing product into the hands of even more customers around the world."
A Lucid Air electric car with built-in Alexa is displayed in an Amazon booth during CES 2023, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. January 6, 2023. REUTERS/Steve Marcus
Lucid announced it had 28,000 preorders for the Air sedan, down from the 34,000 it reported in Q3 in a sign demand for its cars has waned among some consumers.
Earlier this month, Lucid announced its own $7,500 "credit" for certain Air sedans as a way to boost sales as its sole product doesn’t qualify for the $7,500 federal EV tax credit.
Management may address whether this incentive lifted pre-orders in the past few weeks on its call with investors.
Another big question likely to be addressed on the earnings call is the future of the company’s ownership structure, and its status as a public entity.
Lucid’s stock shot up a month ago on speculation Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) would buy out the remainder of the company it doesn’t own and take it private. The PIF’s stake in Lucid sits at approximately 65%.
The Lucid/PIF partnership goes beyond a financial one, however — last year Lucid announced it would be building a factory in Saudi Arabia, with a planned annual capacity of 155,000 EVs a year.
—
Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.
Lucid sees Q1 revenue of $600-$640 million, in-line with the ~$620 million estimated by analysts. Lucid also forecasts its 2023 production to be 10,000 to 14,000 vehicles.
"Last year was a challenging year for everyone, yet despite the extraordinary supply chain and logistics challenges, the team persevered with an unrelenting focus on delivering what we believe is the best luxury sedan on the market," said Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson in a statement.
"Lucid Air is the quintessential luxury sedan, and our goal in 2023 is to amplify our sales and marketing efforts to get this amazing product into the hands of even more customers around the world."
A Lucid Air electric car with built-in Alexa is displayed in an Amazon booth during CES 2023, an annual consumer electronics trade show, in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. January 6, 2023. REUTERS/Steve Marcus
Lucid announced it had 28,000 preorders for the Air sedan, down from the 34,000 it reported in Q3 in a sign demand for its cars has waned among some consumers.
Earlier this month, Lucid announced its own $7,500 "credit" for certain Air sedans as a way to boost sales as its sole product doesn’t qualify for the $7,500 federal EV tax credit.
Management may address whether this incentive lifted pre-orders in the past few weeks on its call with investors.
Another big question likely to be addressed on the earnings call is the future of the company’s ownership structure, and its status as a public entity.
Lucid’s stock shot up a month ago on speculation Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) would buy out the remainder of the company it doesn’t own and take it private. The PIF’s stake in Lucid sits at approximately 65%.
The Lucid/PIF partnership goes beyond a financial one, however — last year Lucid announced it would be building a factory in Saudi Arabia, with a planned annual capacity of 155,000 EVs a year.
—
Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.
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