By Akash Sriram and Abhirup Roy
(Reuters) – Lucid Group Inc on Wednesday forecast 2023 production well short of analysts’ expectations and reported a major drop in orders during fourth quarter, sending the electric carmaker’s shares down 11% after hours.
Lucid said it expects to produce 10,000 to 14,000 luxury electric vehicles this year, up from 7,180 cars last year. Analysts on average expected the company to make 21,815 cars, according to Visible Alpha.
The company, backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, Public Investment Fund (PIF), delivered 4,369 cars last year, far lower than the 7,180 units it produced.
Price cuts by the world’s most valuable automaker Tesla and Ford Motor Co have made it harder for companies such as Rivian Automotive Inc and Lucid to grab share in an industry competing for shrinking consumer wallets.
The company said it had more than 28,000 orders as of Feb. 21, down 6,000 reservations from the second quarter, after it delivered about 1,900 vehicles and saw cancellations.
“There’s probably a lot of frustration from customers having to wait so long for to get the vehicles they ordered,” said Garrett Nelson, an analyst at CFRA Research.
“There’s a lot more competition than a year ago … a lot more EVs becoming available at lower price points than the Lucid Air vehicle.”
Lucid reported a cash balance of $1.74 billion in the fourth quarter, after raising $1.52 billion in December. At the end of the third quarter, it had $1.26 billion in cash reserves.
Lucid’s revenue rose to $257.7 million in the quarter ended Dec. 31 from $26.4 million a year earlier. Analysts on average had expected sales of $302.6 million, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
The company’s net loss narrowed to $472.6 million or 28 cents per share, from a loss of $1.05 billion or 64 cents per share, a year earlier.
Shares of the Newark, California-based company fell as much 10.6% in extended trading. The stock fell 82% last year after Lucid halved its production forecast due to supply chain issues.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli, David Gregorio and Lincoln Feast.)
