Luxury electric vehicle maker Lucid this week reported a widening loss and revenues below estimates for the first quarter of 2023, despite receiving funding of around $2.4 billion from the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia, its majority investor.
Lucid's first-quarter revenue stood at $149.4 million, below an average analyst estimate of $209.9 million provided by Refinitiv.
The net loss at Lucid widened to $779.5 million for the first quarter of 2023 from a loss of $81.3 million for the same period of 2022.
The losses were attributed to a challenging market overall, among other things.
"I believe that there is a challenge to the entire market right now because of macroeconomics and because of interest rates, which actually do affect this place of the market," chief executive officer Peter Rawlinson said on the earnings call this week.
"I think there are challenges right across the marketplace."
Over the past year, Lucid raised $1.515 billion through a private placement of shares to an affiliate of the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia.
PIF owns more than 60% in Lucid.
Lucid also entered into a loan agreement for $1.4 billion with PIF-related Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF), and a new five-year senior secured $1 billion asset-based revolving credit facility.
At the Q1 results release, Lucid's CFO Sherry House said,
"We ended the quarter with just over $3.4 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and investments, with total liquidity of approximately $4.1 billion, which we believe is sufficient to fund the Company at least into Q2 of 2024."
The guidance for 2023 is for Lucid to produce more than 10,000 vehicles, with "company-wide initiatives ongoing that will enable Lucid to pivot to higher volumes as market conditions allow."
Capital expenditures this year are expected at between $1.4 billion and $1.6 billion, Lucid said.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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