Startup EV automaker Lucid Motors announced Sunday it is temporarily cutting prices on its premium Air sedan — by more than $12,000 in some cases.
Lucid cut the price of the base Air Pure model by $5,000 to $82,400. The cut to the mid-grade Touring model was $12,400 for a total price of $95,000, and the top Grand Touring trim was also cut by $12,400 to a total price of $125,600. Lucid announced that the new prices were good “while supplies last,” implying that this is a measure to clear unsold inventory.
In comparison, today’s prices on the Tesla Model S and Model S Plaid are $88,490 and $108,490 respectively. Those prices are also down about 20% this year.
Moving unsold inventory necessary for financial stability
At the close of the second quarter on June 30 of this year, Lucid announced the company had produced 2,173 vehicles during Q2 at its manufacturing facility in Arizona and delivered 1,404 vehicles during the same period. That leaves more than 700 vehicles in inventory, and the company will want to book revenue on those as soon as practical.
Lucid reported Q2 revenue of $150.9 million and a net loss of $764.2 million. However, the company says it is on track to manufacture more than 10,000 vehicles in 2023. Lucid ended the second quarter with approximately $6.25 billion in total liquidity, which is expected to fund the company into 2025, officials noted.
“We’re on track toward achieving our 2023 production target of more than 10,000 vehicles, but we recognize we still have work to do to grow our customer base,” said Peter Rawlinson, Lucid’s CEO and CTO, in a statement.
“During our second quarter, we achieved several major milestones, including signing agreements to enter into a long-term strategic partnership with Aston Martin. Following a competitive process, their investment validates our award-winning technology and marks the first partnership for Lucid Group’s technology arm.”
“We look forward to exciting new products in the second half of this year, including the planned start of production of the Lucid Air Sapphire and the Lucid Air Pure Rear Wheel Drive, plus the highly anticipated unveiling of our new SUV, Lucid Gravity, forthcoming in November.”
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The company’s second quarter results were similar to those of the first three months of the year, when it reported first-quarter revenues up more than 150% to $149.4 million three months ago. That was far short of the $209.9 million that had been forecast.
Lucid also received $3 billion in new investments in June, mostly coming from Saudi Arabia. About two-thirds of the new funding comes from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, or PIF, which now has about $9 billion invested in the California-based automaker. The additional funds were raised through a new public offering of 173.5 million shares of common stock.
The company has had a rough time as the market changed its expectations of EV makers from positive aspirations to hard-eyed results. Lucid shares hit a high of $55.06 on Nov. 29, 2021, but has been trading under $10 a share, dropping below $7 by late May. Lucid is trading at $6.31, down 4.68% in trading as of mid-day on Aug. 7.