Lucid Motors faced a challenging road in the past year, struggling to generate demand for their luxury electric sedans. Despite building 8,428 cars, only 6,001 were delivered.
As 2023 came to a close, the Saudi-backed company limped to the finish line, with only 2,391 cars built and 1,734 delivered in the fourth quarter. These numbers were down 31% and 10%, respectively, from the previous year. Even with the launch of a more affordable version, the Lucid Air Pure, and a subsequent price cut, the company was still unable to increase sales.
In late 2023, Lucid announced that it had sent 800 cars to Saudi Arabia to be assembled in a new facility. It is unclear if these vehicles were included in the recently released figures. Overall, Lucid’s production and sales numbers for 2023 were only slightly better than the previous year, with 7,180 cars built and 4,369 delivered in 2022.
This disappointing results mark a tough year for Lucid, as they had to cut their workforce by 20% and downwardly revised their production targets. They also lost their chief financial officer and struggled to find buyers. CEO Peter Rawlinson commented back in February that the company was facing difficulties due to lack of awareness.
“Too few people are aware of not just the car, but even the company,” Rawlinson said.
Looking towards a more successful 2024, Lucid’s hopes are largely pinned on the success of the Air Pure model. However, this may be complicated by the current volatility of the electric vehicle market, potential price cuts from competitors like Tesla, and the declining popularity of sedans in the U.S. Additionally, their new electric SUV is not set to be delivered until the end of the year. While Saudi Arabia has pledged to purchase up to 100,000 of Lucid’s EVs over the next ten years, their current factory can only assemble up to 5,000 vehicles per year. Plans to expand it into a full production facility are not set to take place until later this decade.
This article has been updated to mention that Lucid Motors declined to comment on whether the 800 cars in Saudi Arabia were included in the delivery figures.
