EV maker Lucid misses on revenue, earnings in Q1

Lucid’s first-quarter results showed a company with widening losses and revenue that failed to meet Wall Street expectations, results that sent shares tumbling as investors worried about demand for its luxury all-electric Air sedan.

Lucid Group’s shares dropped more than 9% in after-hours trading as investors reacted to the dismal first-quarter earnings. Shares have since recovered slightly and are now down 6.3%.

Lucid reported Monday first-quarter revenue of $149.4 million. While the result was two and a half times higher than the $57.7 million it generated in the same period last year. it was far below analysts’ expectations. Analysts polled by Yahoo finance had expected revenue of nearly $210 million in revenue. Lucid’s first quarter revenue was also lower than the $257.7 million it reported in the fourth quarter of 2022 — another quarter in which it missed analysts’ expectations.

Importantly, the company said it plans to produce more than 10,000 vehicles in 2023. Earlier this year, Lucid halved its 2023  target from 20,000 to 22,000 to 10,000 to 14,000 vehicles. This new guidance sets that production target at the lower end.

The company is still losing money as costs outweighed revenue. Lucid reported a first-quarter net loss of $779.5 million, considerably larger than the $81.3 million it reported in the first quarter of 2022.

Total costs and expenses, a figure that includes line items like research and development, administrative and the cost of revenue, also grew by nearly 40%year-over-year to $921.5 million. One hotspot in the first quarter was the cost of revenue, which is the total amount that Lucid spent (including raw materials and labor) to produce and sell its luxury Air sedan. That metric doubled to $500 million in the first quarter compared to the same period last year.

The company ended the quarter with $3.4 billion in cash and total liquidity, which includes credit lines, of $4.1 billion. Lucid CFO Sherry House said the company believes this is sufficient to fund Lucid at least into the second half of 2024.

The company has made moves recently to reduce its costs. In March, Lucid announced plans to layoff 18% of its workforce as part of a restructuring. The layoffs, which affects 1,300 employees, will be completed by the end of the second quarter. The layoffs are across the organization and will include executive positions. Lucid incurred $22.4 million in restructuring charges in the first quarter, according to its earnings report released Monday.