Lucid says on track to make 20,000 EVs next year; strengthens balance sheet

EV maker Lucid Group strengthened its balance sheet to $4.8 billion cash in the third quarter and used its debut earnings statement to affirm its guidance to produce 20,000 vehicles next year.

Lucid said Monday that reservations for its debut EV have surpassed 17,000 after hitting 13,000 in the quarter ended Sept. 30. That represents an order book of more than $1.3 billion, the company said.

While Lucid said it is “confident” of hitting its production goal for next year, the automaker acknowledged risks from ongoing disruptions to global supply chains, which it is taking steps to mitigate.

Lucid shares rose 4 percent in late trading in New York. As of Monday’s close, the stock was up 85 percent  since listing on July 26 via a reverse merger with a blank-check company, a deal which raised more than $4 billion. It is one of several electric-vehicle upstarts to choose this path to public markets.

As of Monday’s close, the company has a market capitalization of about $73 billion, despite generating only meager revenue. In 2018, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund put more than $1 billion into the startup, breathing new life into a company that had struggled to make progress to that point.

Lucid is seen as a potential competitor to Tesla after demonstrating battery technology that can rival the performance of the market incumbent’s vehicles. Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson was formerly chief engineer on Tesla’s Model S sedan.

The startup’s first quarterly earnings report comes less than a week after an initial public offering by another EV newcomer, Rivian Automotive. That listing was the sixth-largest in U.S. history even though the company has made only a handful of vehicles so far, with deliveries largely going to employees.

Like Rivian, Lucid only started production in September and began limited customer deliveries of its first EV on Oct. 31. The company’s short-term focus is to deliver fewer than 600 units of a limited-release Dream Edition Air that is priced at $169,000 and is capable of traveling 520 miles (837 km) on a single charge. The company is also starting deliveries of a lower-spec version of its Air vehicle that costs $139,000.

Lucid manufactures its cars at a facility in Casa Grande, Arizona, that it built in less than year and began operating in 2020.