EV Maker Lucid Cuts Production Outlook in Half
Electric-vehicle maker
Lucid Group Inc.
said it expected to make half as many cars as previously forecast this year, citing supply-chain and logistical challenges that have troubled the wider auto industry as well as the company’s own problems.
The California-based company on Wednesday slashed its 2022 production target for the second time this year. Lucid now projects making between 6,000 and 7,000 vehicles. It first lowered a previous estimate of 20,000 vehicles to between 12,000 and 14,000 in February.
“This quarter has proven to be a very challenging period, and whilst we have experienced supply chain and logistics challenges along with the entire industry, the limitations of our logistics systems have compounded the challenge,” Chief Executive
Peter Rawlinson
said.
He said supply-chain issues and infrastructure upgrades contributed to two-and-a-half weeks in which the company had no daily production at its Arizona factory. He said the company had identified internal bottlenecks and was working to alleviate them.
Shares of Lucid fell over 12% to $17.98 in after-hours trading. Before the updated guidance, the stock had fallen 46% in 2022.
Lucid and other EV makers have faced increasing competition, rising prices and supply logjams. A wave of battery-powered vehicles, from startups including Vietnam’s VinFast to giants such as
Toyota Motor Corp.
and
Volkswagen AG
, are scheduled to hit showrooms in coming months. A quickly growing pool of consumers want to buy them, analysts and car makers say.
The challenge is turning a profit. Costs are rising for key components of EVs, including steel for vehicle bodies and lithium for batteries. And the global semiconductor shortage has resulted in factories running at less than full capacity while they await deliveries of computer chips.
Lucid said in May that it would raise the price of its sole vehicle, the Air sedan, to $87,000, citing rising raw material costs.
For the quarter ended in June, Lucid’s loss narrowed to $220 million from $261 million a year earlier, despite rising expenses. Lucid said it delivered 679 vehicles to customers during the quarter, compared with 360 vehicles in the first quarter.
With investor appetite for nascent EV companies waning, these businesses are conserving cash. Electric pickup truck and SUV maker
Rivian Automotive Inc.,
laid off 6% of its workforce last week, saying it wanted to ensure it can hit its production targets without raising more cash.
Lucid said it had $4.6 billion in cash on hand, compared with $5.4 billion as of March 31, which the company said would allow the company to continue operations into 2023. Revenue for the quarter grew to $97 million, from $174,000 a year earlier.
Lucid faces a bevy of competitors from luxury car makers including
and
Tesla Inc.
Another rival,
Fisker Inc.,
said Wednesday that its second-quarter net loss rose to $106 million, compared with $46 million last year. Fisker said it has more than $850 million in cash and equivalents on hand, down from $1.2 billion at the start of the year.
Fisker plans to begin producing its first product, the Ocean SUV, in November. The company said it had 5,000 preorders of the Ocean initial offering, which costs $69,000. More than 56,000 people total have reserved the SUV, Fisker said, up from 45,000 at the end of the first quarter.
Fisker said it also had 4,000 reservations for a crossover SUV with a base price below $30,000. It expects to begin producing the cheaper vehicle by 2024 as part of a partnership with Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn Technology Group.
Fisker’s stock this year has slid nearly 38% through Wednesday.
Write to Sean McLain at sean.mclain@wsj.com and Ryan Felton at ryan.felton@wsj.com
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