Lucid Motors delivered more EVs in the first quarter of 2024 than in any other quarter, though it set the record by a very narrow margin.
The Saudi-backed California-based electric vehicle company said Tuesday morning that it shipped 1,967 luxury sedans in the quarter. That’s just a few more than it shipped in the fourth quarter of 2022, when it set the previous record of 1,932 deliveries. But the company said it built just 1,728 sedans in the first quarter, meaning it will need to ramp up production in the coming quarters if it plans to meet its modest guidance of 9,000 EVs this year.
Lucid’s new delivery record comes as the company struggles to find steady demand for its expensive luxury sedan, the Air. The company is still months away from starting production of its upcoming Gravity SUV, so it’s throwing discounts, increased marketing efforts, and a more affordable Air investment to keep things going until it can ship this new model. Meanwhile, he recently returned to Saudi Arabia to raise another $1 billion to fund an otherwise still money-losing business.
Lucid is not alone in its struggles. Rivian also started 2024 with a bit of a leg up, building and shipping about the same number of vehicles in the first quarter as in the last quarter of 2024. These companies are trying to get a foothold in a rapidly changing market where Tesla has steadily cut prices. and major automakers have scaled back their most ambitious plans to mass-market all-electric vehicles.
While Lucid set a new high for itself in the first quarter, it did not say how many of the deliveries were of the more affordable version of the Air sedan, which began shipping late last year. The company also said last year that it had started sending the first vehicles to Saudi Arabia for final assembly – the first step in a plan to sell up to 100,000 vehicles to its primary owner. But it has not specified how many Air sedans have arrived in the Kingdom to date. The company will only be able to assemble a maximum of 5,000 vehicles in Saudi Arabia until a full production plant is rolled out in a few years.
