Lucid Group shares pop on strong EV deliveries during Q2
A short statement issued Monday by electric vehicle maker Lucid Group Inc. had a big impact on its share price, which gained nearly 8%.
Newark, California-based Lucid Group (Nasdaq: LCID), which produces its Lucid Air luxury electric sedans at a plant south of Phoenix in Casa Grande, said it produced 2,110 vehicles during the quarter and delivered 2,394 EVs during the three months ending on June 30.
That is sharply ahead of the 1,728 electric vehicles produced during the first quarter, when the company delivered 1,967 vehicles, its highest quarterly delivery number to date. The production number was still short of the year-earlier period, when Lucid manufactured 2,173 vehicles, but beat the year-earlier delivery number by nearly 1,000 units.
FactSet had reported that analysts expected Q2 deliveries at about 2,000 units.
The delivery number news pushed Lucid shares sharply higher in trading on July 8, with the shares reaching a high of $3.20 before closing at $3.16, up 23 cents or 7.85%. By contrast the company’s stock had reached a high of $8.37 back in mid-2023, before drifting lower ever since, opening 2024 above $4.
Still, because the shares have been subject to big swings, the shares already gave up a large part of those gains in early trading on Tuesday, losing 10 cents or 3.2%.
Still, Barron’s pointed out that about 30% of the company’s Q1 sales came from business linked to the Saudi Arabian government. Saudi-controlled entities control a major portion of Lucid stock, the publication reported on Monday.
Lucid declined to say how many cars were sold to Saudi entities in the second quarter. Company officials have scheduled Lucid’s full Q2 earnings call with analysts on Aug. 5 when the complete details of the deliveries should be released. In March, Lucid hit up its Saudi investors for a $1 billion infusion to help shore up its balance sheet, the Business Journal previously reported.
Barron’s reported that Lucid executives have said the company expects to produce about 9,000 cars in 2024. Lucid made about 3,800 in the first half of the year, meaning that the company will have to ramp up production even more to reach that goal in the second half.
Lucid set plans to cut 6% of workforce
The announcement by Lucid comes at a time when EV makers have faced pressure amid lower interest from consumers; Lucid had lowered its vehicle price during Q1 by $14,000 per unit.
In May, Lucid announced that it would lay off hundreds of workers, with a plan to reduce its headcount by 6%.
While the cuts do not impact Lucid’s hourly manufacturing and logistics workforce at its Arizona manufacturing plant, the company has laid off 60 salaried workers in the state, a Lucid spokesperson told the Business Journal at the time.
The company had about 2,500 employees in Casa Grande following a layoff of about 1,000 workers last year, the Business Journal previously reported.