Lucid has announced its delivery and production figures for Q4 and full year 2023, and it is yet another disappointing span for the automaker.
Lucid reported that it had delivered 1,734 vehicles in Q4, roughly 10 percent fewer than the 1,932 cars it delivered in the same quarter a year earlier. The one bright spot of the quarter was the fact that it managed to reach its annual production goal of between 8,000 and 8,500 units.
For the year, Lucid built 8,428 vehicles and delivered 6,001 cars.
It had originally planned for over 10,000 units to be built in 2023. However, Lucid cut its annual production and delivery forecast for the year in November, stating it needed to “prudently align” its production capabilities with its delivery figures.
In early December, Lucid announced that it would upgrade and update its lineup of the Air, its introductory electric sedan. It made the vehicles more customizable, but they are still priced at a premium, with its least expensive configuration still costing $77,400.
In terms of what analysts think about the stock, CFRA analyst Garrett Nelson said to Teslarati that the firm would downgrade the stock from “Sell” to “Strong Sell.”
“With shares hitting a new record low, we see little in the way of fundamental or technical support for the stock and expect additional lows to be set. The results imply that LCID’s cash burn rates have remained extremely high, and its runway is clearly shortening,” Nelson writes. “Adding insult to injury for the EV names is news that Hertz is selling 20K EVs, or one-third of its total U.S. EV fleet, in favor of purchasing gas-powered vehicles and incurring $245M of depreciation expense in the process. We lower our opinion on LCID one notch to Strong Sell, advising investors against thinking about “catching a falling knife.”
The firm also cut its price target from $2 to $1.
Lucid shares are down nearly 4 percent on the day and are trading at $3.28 a share.
The company said that it would report its Q4 financial results on Wednesday, February 21, 2024, at 5:30 P.M. on the East Coast.
It will be interesting, to say the least, to hear CEO and CTO Peter Rawlinson’s comments on how the company can make progress as the last few years have been a rough patch for Lucid as it tries to scale production and turn a profit.
Luckily, Lucid is backed by the Saudi PIF, which has what seems to be limitless money. Lucid and Saudi Arabia have a strategic partnership that includes a production facility in the country.
Disclosure: Joey Klender is not an LCID Shareholder.