Lucid comes to Europe

[dan_b]

Have to say if you're in the market for a executive luxobarge EV, the Lucid Air is looking pretty competitive price and spec-wise now in Europe. Obviously it's a small and now rather crowded end of the car market, but it's also one which Tesla has essentially given up on, and the Air seems a very good alternative to the Beemers and Mercs out there - obviously not going to be a personal purchase but a company/corporate one.

https://electrek.co/2024/11/05/lucid-lc ... uxury-evs/

[Stinsy]

Cool. It isn't for me but I'm pleased it exists.

If EVs are to proliferate they can't just be hair-shirted eco-mobiles like the original LEAF or Prius.

[Mart]

But ..... be careful, they are still losing ~$300k per car sold, and the latest cash injection from the Saudi PIF, to keep them solvent, has knocked the already collapsed share price, down another 33% this last month.

Before the cash injection, the Saudi PIF already owned 60% of Lucid, and this will have diluted the shares further.

Lucid would have gone bust a couple of years ago without this money, so if (and I'm only saying IF) the Saudi's stop propping them up, they will almost immediately 'do a Fisker'.

[Swwils]

The drive motor is incredibly well designed, I would say it's better than anything else out there.

[dan_b]

https://electrek.co/2024/11/07/lucid-lc ... avity-suv/

Lucid reckons it has the cash.

But ..... be careful, they are still losing ~$300k per car sold, and the latest cash injection from the Saudi PIF, to keep them solvent, has knocked the already collapsed share price, down another 33% this last month.

Before the cash injection, the Saudi PIF already owned 60% of Lucid, and this will have diluted the shares further.

Lucid would have gone bust a couple of years ago without this money, so if (and I'm only saying IF) the Saudi's stop propping them up, they will almost immediately 'do a Fisker'.

[Mart]

Yep, as I mentioned, they just got yet another cash injection from the Saudi PIF, of $1.5bn, so they have enough cash (total now) to keep them afloat through 2025. [Edit - sorry, they got $1.03bn in Nov. The $1.5bn was the previous injection of cash in August. M.]

But they are losing so much per car, without those cash injections, they will go bust very fast. As the article mentions, they sold 2,781 cars, had revenue of $200m, but lost $992m, (up from $630m in Q2), which works out at ~$360k per car loss.

I see no way that they can ever cut costs below the selling price of their cars. They like to brag about having the most efficient motors, and large, highly efficient battery packs, but that level of tech comes at a price - "If you're at the cutting edge, you are going to bleed." [Sometimes referred to as 'the bleeding edge'.]

[Paul_F]

If they're only selling a few thousand cars, it'll be the overheads that are killing them not the cost of manufacturing the car. IF they can increase sales, their cash bleed will go way down.

[Swwils]

They won't run out of cash, they will just do a large deal with someone like VW. The engineering is too good to ignore.

[Mart]

If they're only selling a few thousand cars, it'll be the overheads that are killing them not the cost of manufacturing the car. IF they can increase sales, their cash bleed will go way down.

You'd think that, but in Q3 their revenue was $200m, and their COGS (cost of goods sold) was $412m. So before overheads they are losing $212m, with a comprehensive loss of $975m. [Edit - I edited some of these numbers to correct mistakes. M.]

So the cost of manufacturing those 2,781 sales was ~$148k per car . But to be fair, whilst they sold 2,781 cars in Q3, they actually only built 1,805, so should that be $228k per car? To be blunt, they are building extremely high tech and quality cars, but that comes at a very high price, one not covered at all by the selling price.

Also bear in mind that they had a production ramp planned to 20,000 vehicles for 2022. They eventually reduced that down to 6k, and are aiming for 9k this year.

Doesn't help that Peter Rawlinson the CEO, is the highest paid auto exec in the World*. Most seem to get around $10m to $20m per year, but he paid himself around $200m in 2021 in stock options, and ~$400m in 2022. Not sure about 2023/24. Of course the value of those stock options has now tanked.

*Musk is far, far higher, possibly around $50bn for his last pay deal (not annual), but based on company/share performance. However that's currently been blocked.

[Swwils]

https://www.greencarreports.com/news/11 ... now-formed



"The joint venture, which is expected to start operations Nov. 13."