Lucid plans to start production of Gravity electric SUV in late 2024
Lucid said Monday it will reveal its long-awaited all-electric Gravity SUV in November with production not kicking off until late 2024.
The EV maker, which has experienced a drop in sales for its well regarded but pricey luxury sedan, had originally planned to begin producing the Gravity at its factory in Arizona in late 2023. That date was later pushed to 2024, but the company had never indicated in which quarter production would begin.
Lucid gave consumers their first peek at the Gravity back in 2020 during an event to unveil the Air. At the time, the company said the Gravity was already well into the design process. Lucid even had a working prototype, which was spotted in summer 2020 out in the wild.
That progress seemed to stagnate as Lucid grappled with production of the Air sedan. Lucid provided its first real update in April 2023 when it began testing pre-production versions of the Gravity SUV on public roads.
Lucid has not yet shared the price of its upcoming Gravity SUV, but the automaker might feel pressure to hit a lower price point than originally planned. Over the weekend, Lucid reduced the price of its Air Pure sedan by $5,000 to $82,400, dropped prices of the Air Touring and Grand Touring versions by $12,400 to $95,000 and $125,600, respectively.
Lucid shared the Gravity production date in its second-quarter earnings report, which missed Wall Street expectations. The U.S. automaker said it generated $150.9 million in the second quarter, a 55% uptick from the $97.3 million in the same year-ago period. That still wasn’t enough to beat analysts expectations, which had forecast revenue of $175 million, according to Yahoo Finance data.
Last month, Lucid said it delivered 1,404 Air sedans in the second quarter. While that was double the number of EVs it delivered in Q2 2022, it was still about 600 fewer than analysts had expected, pushing shares lower. It was also flat from the first quarter of 2023. Lucid delivered 1,406 vehicles in the first quarter of 2023.
The company reported a net loss of $764.2 million in the second quarter compared to a loss of $220.4 million in the same year-ago period. On a diluted basis, the company’s net loss in Q2 2022 was $555.3 million.
Lucid reported a free cash flow of negative $904 million. However, the automaker confirmed that it raised $3 billion in capital in the second quarter, including $1.8 billion from Saudi Arabia’s PIF. Lucid reported liquidity of $6.25 billion, which Lucid CFO Sherry House says can take the automaker through the start of production for the Lucid Gravity, and into 2025.
Lucid’s 2023 outlook remained the same, more or less. In February, the company halved its previous 2023 target from 20,000 to 22,000 vehicles to 10,000 to 14,000 vehicles. On Monday, Lucid said it is on track to deliver “more than 10,000 vehicles” this year.
Lucid’s stock climbed 4.5% in after-hours trading immediately after the company reported earnings.
