Lucid posts a wider loss as demand concerns linger, says it has enough cash to last into 2024

Luxury electric vehicle maker Lucid Group on Monday reported a wider first-quarter loss, but said that it still has enough cash to continue operations into next year.

Shares were down over 8% in after-hours trading following the news.

“We are on track to produce over 10,000 vehicles in 2023, with companywide initiatives ongoing that will enable Lucid to pivot to higher volumes as market conditions allow,” CEO Peter Rawlinson said on Monday. Lucid guided to 2023 production of between 10,000 and 14,000 vehicles in February.

Here are the key numbers from Lucid’s first-quarter earnings report, along with Wall Street’s consensus estimates as reported by Refinitiv:

• Loss per share: 43 cents
• Revenue: $149.4 million vs. $209.9 million expected.

Analysts polled by Refinitiv expected a loss per share of 41 cents, but it wasn’t immediately clear whether the bottom-line results were comparable to that estimate.

Lucid’s first-quarter net loss was $779.5 million, or 43 cents per share, much wider than the $81.3 million, or 5 cents per share, it reported in the first quarter of 2022, when it was still ramping up production of the Air. Revenue, however, jumped year over year to $149.4 million from $57.7 million.

Lucid ended the first quarter with about $3.4 billion in cash and about $700 million in available credit lines. Finance chief Sherry House said cash should be sufficient to fund the company at least until the second quarter of 2024.

The EV maker had about $4.4 billion in cash and an additional $500 million in credit available as of the end of 2022.

Lucid has recently been moving to conserve cash. It said in March that it would cut about 18% of its workforce, roughly 1,300 workers, in a bid to lower spending.

The company is still addressing demand concerns.

The automaker’s expected 2023 production of “over 10,000” Air sedans is well below the “more than 28,000” reservations it recorded as of its fourth-quarter earnings report in February. And, in April, Lucid said it produced 2,314 Airs in the first quarter while delivering just 1,406 to customers during the period, a gap the company blamed on a “slow January” and changes to the U.S. government’s EV tax credits.

In another sign that demand for the Air may be weak, Lucid declined to provide an updated reservation number on Monday.

Lucid said on April 25 that its next model, a large electric SUV called Gravity, is on track to begin production in 2024. It plans to reveal the Gravity later this year.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.