Lucid Motors delivered only 6,001 of the 8,428 cars it built last year, as it continues to struggle to generate demand for its luxury electric sedans.
The Saudi-backed company limped to the finish of 2023, building just 2,391 cars and delivering 1,734 in the fourth quarter — down 31% and 10%, respectively, from the fourth quarter of 2022. That’s despite the fact that Lucid launched the cheapest version of its car, dubbed the Lucid Air Pure, in October and immediately cut the price of the all-wheel drive trim to $74,900.
Lucid also said in late 2023 that it had shipped 800 cars to Saudi Arabia to be assembled at a new facility in the Kingdom. The company declined to say if those vehicles were counted in the figures released Thursday. In total, Lucid’s 2023 production and sales figures were only marginally better than they were in 2022, where it built 7,180 cars and delivered 4,369 of them.
The disappointing sales figures cap a tough year for Lucid. The company laid off nearly 20% of its workforce (around 1,300 people), reduced its production targets multiple times and lost its chief financial officer. Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson said on multiple occasions that his startup was struggling to find buyers. “Too few people are aware of not just the car, but even the company,” he said way back in February.
Lucid’s path to a more successful 2024 likely rests on the Air Pure model, but that could be complicated by the recent choppiness of EV sales, or any further price cuts from Tesla (or other players), and the fact that sedans have fallen out of style in the U.S. The company’s forthcoming electric SUV won’t ship until at least the end of this year. And while Saudi Arabia has pledged to buy up to 100,000 of the startup’s EVs over the next 10 years, the factory Lucid currently operates there only has a maximum capacity of assembling just 5,000 vehicles per year until it gets expanded to a full production facility later this decade.
This story has been updated to note that Lucid Motors declined to comment on whether the 800 cars in Saudi Arabia were included in the delivery figures.