Lucid Motors Triples Loss in First Year of Production

Lucid Motors’ net loss for the full year is more than $2.5 billion, or $2.22 billion. In the fourth quarter, when Lucid started production of the Air, the loss was the largest at €930 million. Compared to 2020, the manufacturer’s loss even tripled. This is partly due to investments in the factory, the costs of starting up the production of the Air and research and development. The new car brand delivered a total of 125 units of the Air in 2021, bringing in the equivalent of €24.1 million. However, given the cost of Lucid, that is a drop in the ocean. Plus, Lucid actually had the goal of delivering 577 Airs.

Things aren’t looking too rosy for Lucid for the coming year either. The brand expects to produce 12,000 to 14,000 cars, where the forecast was previously at 20,000 copies. According to Lucid, it currently faces “huge logistics and supply chain challenges.” The brand does not explicitly mention the chip shortage, but it seems logical that Lucid has also been hit by this.

Lucid Air

Despite the billion-dollar loss, Lucid is already looking further ahead. The brand wants to start up a new factory in Saudi Arabia, construction of which will start in the first half of this year. The goal is to eventually build 150,000 cars a year there. The current plant in Arizona should eventually have a production capacity of 365,000 cars per year. Those cars will eventually also find their way to Europe. In addition to the Air, Lucid will also launch an SUV next year, which is currently known as ‘Project Gravity’.

Incidentally, Lucid Motors is not the only ‘starting’ car manufacturer that presented red figures last year. Rivian, which builds the electric pickup and SUV R1T and R1S, still had to write down more than €1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021. Rivian also failed to meet production targets.